Unknown Path
by Fay mi
Summary: UNDER REVISION: Buffy didn't want power but what if it was given to her either way. She won't accept it, will she? What sort of power is it anyway? Post Chosen
1. Chapter 1

****Title: Unknown Path****

Disclaimer: BtVS and Stargate or NCIS characters do not belong to me, and I claim no rights to these copyrighted materials. I don't know where the story is going but right now it is a Stargate crossover.

**Summary: Buffy didn't want power but what if it was given to her either way. She won't accept it, will she? What sort of power is it anyway? Post Chosen**

**First Chapter Betaed!**

Thanks a lot!

**Chapter one**: Conflicts

Each slayer is always truly alone. Even with friends and family. The burden is never shared by them. Buffy understood that really well now.  
>She stood in front of what remained of Sunnydale. It was weird… she lived through hell in this city, however there was a pang of nostalgia within her when she thought of the remains of her mom, her friends, the people who died in this Hellmouth.<br>What was she going to do now?

"_What are we gonna do now?_"

The sound of Dawn's whispering kept ringing trough her ears as if she was screaming. Yet Buffy couldn't bring herself to answer. Her body was warming up very quickly, she felt like something was loosening up, waking up within her. She looked quickly at Faith, finding her besides Robin, looking peacefully at the Sunnydale Crater. She then decided not to tell anyone, trying to convince herself that it was not to worry them. Something was changing inside of her and she didn't want to tell anyone. The group standing behind her was composed by both her best friends ever and strangers. She didn't know if she could trust them like she had before: blindly.

Buffy turned around, looking at Dawn, struggling not to wince from the still bleeding wound on her stomach.

"I don't know about you all, but I need a vacation. I don't know how long…" Buffy said, watching briefly as the others began to shake themselves from the frenzy of the fall of the Hellmouth. She turned her eyes toward Dawn, who was gazing at her with fear and hope, her eyes beginning to tear.

"You can come with me if you want… I mean we could use the time to really reconnect."

Dawn released the breath she unconsciously holding, and tears falling, she smiled at her sister for giving her another chance. "Anywhere you want! You choose I don't care..." She said hugging Buffy with all the strength she could muster.

The longest living slayer smiled despite the pain, thinking that maybe she could catch a break… finally. Giles put his gaze on them and grinned tiredly knowing that if Buffy was going to forgive someone, it was her sister. He was her Watcher, but he knew himself that he lost his way. He, somehow, lost the faith he had on her ability to lead, while he was the one repeatedly saying to her to be a general. And he was wrong obviously; he now wanted nothing more than to regain her trust in him, to be her Watcher again. Dawn wouldn't leave her side since the fall, she had been so afraid when they had come back from the school without her. He had realized then that Buffy was always the last to leave the danger.

Giles looked down and approached the two sisters quietly smiling softly at the suggestions Dawn was giving.

"…We could go to New York or something…We could even go to Europe! Paris for example has the monuments and Disney land! Oh Buffy it could be so cool!"

But seeing as Buffy wasn't responding, she dropped her smile.

"What's wrong?" Dawn asked, putting her hand on her arm.

The battle with The First had been devastating for all of them. They lost a lot, everybody lost someone. Buffy refused to think about Spike. She turned again to watch the giant hole where the remains of so many people were: Spike, her mom, Tara, Amanda, and all the other Potentials that lost their lives in this fight… She knew they were angry. Well Xander and Willow that is.

She sighed and turned around to face the angry faces of her friends.

"If someone has something to say about my plans, say it!" Buffy said smiling sadly; frustrated that her every move has to be vetoed by everyone but herself.

Before Xander even tried to say something, Giles raised his head and looked in her eyes trying to convey his deepest support and regret.

"I am supporting you one hundred percent about your decision to take a break. I will be returning to England to try and get hold of the Council Bank accounts. I will also try and gather around the remaining trustworthy watchers to train and find the newly called Slayers. I will take care of everything." He said.

"Good idea… And thanks Giles." Said Buffy, a little surprised.

Xander watched as they spoke.

"Now wait a minute! Giles you can't be serious! She is running again letting us to watch the Potentials alone. I can't believe this! If you go, who is going to train them?"

"Xander, we didn't say it was forever. It is just so we can rest a little. Besides, I would suppose the girls would like to visit their parents sometimes before training." Several Potentials-now-turned-slayers nodded vigorously at Giles suggestion. "And now is not the time to discuss this. Let's find shelter and food for the time being." Giles's tone was firm and his gaze at Xander warned him to think before opening his mouth again. But Xander wasn't finished, he turned toward Buffy.

"What about us, huh? I thought we were your friends. I just want to know why you are running again!"

"Xander, right now I am barely standing. You can do whatever you want! There is no more Hellmouth! I can be free at least for a few months, don't you think? I can't tell you how sorry I am about Anya, your eye and the Potentials. If I could exchange my life for theirs…" She choked on the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes and went on saying. "I would. I would do anything to change that. I wish my death would bring back the others and I know you blame me for their deaths." Seeing as they began to protest, she continued, her tone stronger. "I know it! And you know it too… God knows I blame myself every day and night. But I can't… I couldn't be everywhere. I am sorry to say that we couldn't have won this war without sacrifices! You had in mind the death of the Potentials; I had in mind the death of every single person of this freaking planet! Do you know how stressed I was, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I couldn't breathe without the First taunting me every second of the day … or even without having you second guessing my decisions. I didn't have a choice, I couldn't do otherwise…"

"We were all having a hard time, Buffy! Potentials died in there, and you wanted us to go another time? We are not like you, with super powers Buff'!"

She heard the nickname so many times but never before has she despised it like at this moment. She calmed herself and suddenly she knew what to do.

She turned to the others, addressing the new slayers specifically.

"I know it was dangerous. The life of a slayer is always dangerous. The difference between you and me, Xander, is that I would never have let anyone of you go in there alone." Seeing his outraged look, she continued without pause. "And it is normal, I am the slayer, we are alone, we work alone. I know Faith understands it very well too." She saw Faith nod with a sad expression. "We were not meant to have help and these few months helped me understand something too… There are no longer just two of us, and only slayers can help each other in this fight. And I am not saying you never helped but in situations like this…"

Buffy took a pause and approached the slayers. She watched as Rhona struggled with the help of Vi to sit and the others supporting each other.

"Make teams, not necessarily now, but…what I mean to say is: Don't fight alone, you don't have to! You are _all_ Slayers. A slayer is alone but another slayer can help carry the burden, don't ever forget that and don't fight it. Don't presume that you can survive alone." She turned back and walked back to the bus. "Don't make the mistake Faith and I did. That is all I have to say."

Xander, Willow, Giles and the others watched with regret as Buffy walked away from them. Dawn raced to catch up with her.  
>They got back on the bus with LA as their destination and Giles as the driver, Robin resting besides Faith. But just as they were ready to set off, Buffy half rose from her seat and the slayers became alert. The sounds of helicopters reached them before the vehicles themselves came into sight. In the wake of the now hovering helicopters, several SUV's raced toward them.<p>

The cars stopped and the helicopters landed. Buffy struggled with the doors of the bus, finally opening them without destroying them and got out, Willow, Giles and Dawn close behind. Recalling the Scythe on the roof of the bus, Buffy quickly climbed up, pretending to use the elevation to get a better feel for who was approaching, grabbed the Scythe and handed it discreetly to Faith through the window as she got down again. Then she moved towards the approaching men in black.

Buffy blinked suddenly. "Riley?"

"Hello, Buffy" Said Riley. He was one of the men in black walking towards them.

**End of Chapter**


	2. Chapter 2

Unknown Path

**Disclaimer:** BtVS and Stargate or NCIS characters do not belong to me, and I claim no rights to these copyrighted materials. I don't know where the story is going but right now it is a Stargate crossover.

Chapter betaed!

**Chapter two:** Inner conflicts

Watching Riley approaching them, Buffy felt her surprise melt and her anger rocket. Of course, Riley and his pseudo commando; slash demon hunters slash apparently secret agents of some sort; arrive at the end (smiling), apparently knowing exactly when the battle ended.

'That's rich!' Buffy prepared mentally to confront him.

"You did quite a number on the city, Buffy! The reporters will be soon pilling here; we can direct you to shelter…"

Buffy shook her head, trying to clear her head from the headache that was forming since her confrontation with Xander.

"What are you doing here, Riley?"

"What? We are here to help…"

"I meant: What are you doing here, now? We could have used the help. It would have been nice if you had at least offered." Buffy stared at him coldly. Thinking back to Angel's offer to help, she admitted to herself she would have probably refused but it would have been nice to procure weapons or to know that they had a third front if the Sunnydale and LA groups were to fail.

Riley stared at the woman whom he had dated before and sighted sadly, dropping the smile.

"Every communications link we had to Sunnydale was broken, every camera, except a few in unimportant places were tampered with. We didn't know things were so bad. I was in Africa chasing a clan of chaos demons with my team. I really would have come if I had known."

The three of the men in black accompanying Riley, the ex-initiative-soldiers were looking a bit confused, one of them even angry. His black hair was pulled impeccably backward; he was tall and seemed to carry himself like a marine which he could be for all Buffy knew. But, they obviously were not army or Initiative anymore, more like CIA or FBI.

Softening her expression, Buffy accepted the answer he'd given. For now.

"Ok. So what do you want? I imagine you don't offer to help us without wanting something in return." Buffy narrowed her eyes and continued in a harsh tone. "So spill."

The words and tone were more than enough to make Riley realize that it was not wise to play with her. He straightened and prepared to convey his official message to everyone. He gestured to his men to retreat to an obviously preset distance and survey the area, which they did without hesitation, even mister maybe-ex-marine-turned-man-in-black. The air of threat and menace that surrounded the men was increased by the dark sunglasses that hid their eyes.

"Well trained soldiers!" Soledad piped up, if rather nervously.

Riley chose to ignore the remark.

"I have some messages and news I want, and have been ordered, to share with you all."

"Go ahead, but you had better be brief. We have many injured people." Giles said, taking off his glasses to clean them.

"We have doctors and other medical personnel. If you'll let us, we can offer aid."  
>Buffy looked at Giles, who nodded.<p>

"Call them in." Buffy said. "But no Initiative tricks."  
>Riley winced and nodded, then he moved his arm in a circle above his head. At his signal, medical teams sprang into action, performing triage and starting first aid and emergency care on the most seriously injured.<br>One of them bravely approached Buffy, only to scurry away to go tend to another patient when Buffy refuse the help with a glare and a shake of her head.  
>The survivors of Sunnydale watched as Rona and Robin where transported to one of the helicopters, joined by Lisa, Vi, Chao Ahn and Xander, to Buffy's relief. She was tired of fighting.<p>

"Go on…"

"President Hayes was recently briefed about the Initiative and you." He took a breath and stared at her in the eye. "As in You: Buffy, you the Slayer. He wants to ensure that a situation like this does not occur again and for that he hopes to have you as an official specialist or advisor on the supernatural here in the USA. You would have power over every agency when a situation proves to be linked to the supernatural. You are going to have to be briefed in a few 'need to know' Projects, as will Mr. Giles, to determine if such links exist. You don't have to agree immediately to the President's request, and it is that, a request, but he wishes to see you in person to explain his reasoning. You can decide what you want to share with him and what to do afterwards."

Buffy opened her mouth to say something, completely taken off-guard by what Riley had said. She closed her mouth again, thinking hard; they could benefit from this, no more difficult times dealing with the police. The support it would give them would be really welcomed by everyone. Then she thought of an important question.

"Who do we answer to?"

Riley told them with confidence, having asked twice, to be absolutely sure.

"You answer only to the President. President Hayes wishes to explain reasons for that himself. I was ordered to tell you this because of the Initiative, of our prior…errr…relationship."

Buffy glanced at the bus, unsure.

"I need to think and discuss this with the others. I was planning on a long vacation…" She looked at Dawn, who was frowning. "Still planning on it, actually. Riley can we talk about this tomorrow after everybody has rested? I just want to sleep right now."

Riley looked dreadfully embarrassed at pressuring them while they had just come from the battlefield before simply nodding.

"Of course. We've secured a hotel in one of the surrounding towns, most residents traveled much further, so they're all empty."

The Sunnydale survivors could at last relax in the small hotel that was in a small town half hour an hour from where the Hellmouth had once been. The place was empty, as Riley had said, and a manager waiting for them with keys ready. Buffy was still not meeting anyone's eye.

Willow sat down in her room alone. She'd chased Kennedy from the room to think. And think she did. She was angry at herself. She'd behaved horribly toward Buffy, they all had. She did plan to rest and take a vacation herself, so why did she feel that so betrayed and angry when Buffy decided that was what she was going to do as well?

The slayer was not as excited by the reconstruction of the council as Willow was. Willow was looking forward to track every slayer and direct them toward the New Council but she was not a slayer. She knew that Buffy had had a hard life. It was probably why she wasn't looking forward to training the other slayers.

_But they would have better lives now… they would have actual lives. Maybe Buffy was afraid of having condemned innocent girls to the hard life of a slayer? What happened to them all? What happened to their friendship?_

Tired of her musings, Willow pushed her hair away from her face and entered the small bathroom. She watched the reflection of a haunted young woman look back at her. She remembered her close encounter with the First, how he possessed every inch of her being. She never knew she could be so scared.

Sighting, she went back to the room, sleep threatening to claim her as she crossed the threshold to the bedroom. Yet, she couldn't find it within herself to lie on the bed. She listened to the sound of Xander's feet in the room next to hers. The walls were thin, she could hear everything. She thought back to his behavior, knowing she couldn't condemn him. She realized that, has Giles not spoken, she would have reacted the same way. And she knew Buffy felt her anger, and that was worse than having heard the red haired witch's words. Buffy was probably hurt, feeling still rejected by their words and behavior, especially considering the things that had happened before.

_Mostly Dawnie's. To be kicked out by a her sister for whom she gave her life…_

Willow, thinking about it, winced at the memory of all of them turning Buffy out of her own house.

Standing up suddenly, Willow decided to not wait for the other Scooby's to get their acts together and to go apologize to Buffy right now. She still remembered thinking she was abandoned by her friends at her return from "rehab" and how devastated she was by it. She left her room, pausing briefly at the door to feel the slayers and track down Buffy, having figured Faith and Buffy would be more powerful than the rest.

_Faith … is in her room. There! Ah no that's Chao-Ahn… Vi is with Caridad in the Lobby. Where is Buffy? I can't sense her… Was it her wound? What if she…_

"I can't sense her!" She repeated aloud to no one. She was beginning to panic when…

"You can't sense who?"

Willow turned abruptly to meet Buffy's questioning gaze. She took a breath to calm her nerves, relief washing over her. Then the young witch took a step toward the tiny, beautiful blonde, surprising her by taking her in her arms and hugging with all her might. At that moment, every reproach made, every angry thought about the slayer disappeared leaving only the relief of seeing her well and breathing.

Then the babbling began… Buffy did not understand everything but caught the most important point. Willow was apologizing to her and not declaring her undying love like she initially thought. But that was so not the point…

"… I am so sorry, Buffy! I wish I could say that it was the First manipulating us but it was really just us and the fear of dying. Not that we wouldn't die for the cause and we sooooo wouldn't let you fight alone. Buffy, if I could say the "W" word, I would have W.I.S.H.E.D to have done things differently! We were so stupid; I don't know what came over us! But it's never going to happen again, I swear I'll never do anything like that ever again! I am so sorry, I know it is going to be hard to forgive us, and I really understand, its unforgivable. Have the others apologized yet? Because, I could totally drag them all here. I could be Bad Willow! Not Bad black veiny Willow but Bad cop Willow or good witch Willow. And, and… and I could bake a few dozen cookies…"

Stopping Willow in her fifth minute of babbling, Buffy broke the hug and smiled softly. It was her first real smile of the day.

"…or a few thousand…" Willow trailed off weakly, looking at her hesitantly.

"Willow, you can't imagine what you just did meant to me! It felt terrible to be the one in charge, to ignore the fear and the agony and drive you all onward. I saw… When the Shadow Men showed me the thousands of Turok thingies, I was so afraid that these uber vamps were going to walk among us, to kill everybody. I couldn't let that happen. I hated being in the role of the general."

"I understand. I am really sorry I was so dense. We were not prepared to lose so much and we took it on you."

"Thank you so much, I really needed to hear this. And seriously Willow, bad cop?"

Buffy smiled at her friend, happy to talk with her again like old times. She saw at last hope that she would be forgiven and could forgive and that her relationship with the Scoobies could be fixed with some time apart and work. She now prepared for her and her sister's departures for New York City to meet their dad, having located him via Google. Apparently, he had opened an office there so it would be a good place to start. And of course they were not looking to reunite the happy family again, no. Buffy decided to go talk to him about the Alimony and child support that he'd forgotten about since the divorce. They were broke, the plane tickets were bought with the last money she and Dawn had. Then, after a few weeks, they would take a rental car to Washington DC to _ she couldn't believe she was thinking this_ meet with the President. Giles and Riley would meet her there.

**END of the Chapter**


	3. Chapter 3

Unknown Path

****

**Don't hesitate to comment!**

**Disclaimer:** BtVS and Stargate or NCIS characters do not belong to me, and I claim no rights to these copyrighted materials. I don't know where the story is going but right now it is a Stargate crossover.

**Chapter Three:** Disillusionment.

_'Everything was going to be alright'_

After talking with Willow, Buffy went back to her room to try to catch some sleep. A slayer could function several days without sleep but she couldn't remember the last time she laid in bed for the whole night. The whole ordeal with the First left her agitated enough that she couldn't sleep more than three hours a night. However right now, after the battle, even after the relief of having talked to Dawn, Willow and Giles, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was not going to be a walk in the park. She lifted her shirt to inspect her bandaged middle, wincing at the bright red that stained it. Shrugging, she put down her clothes deciding to change it tomorrow. She was feeling weary and hot as if she was burning from inside. Curiously, rather than feeling pain from her two-entry wound, she felt as if a fire was burning more and more inside of her but that could be ignored like she has done so well today. Unfortunately, she couldn't do the same about the other situation. Her unease was not only caused by the rejection of her friends, it was also about her ability to lead them. Are they expecting her to lead again? She wasn't sure she could…

Now that the happiness caused by Willow's apology was beginning to wear off, she was also unsure about the whole president thing. Was she ready for that? Working with the government before was a really bad idea, but she was not completely blind to the fact that the situation changed. Working without its support was going to be hard if not impossible. Giles was going to have to meet with The Queen and the Prime Minister to be granted access to the Council Fund as they were blocked until further notice. And she wasn't going to deny the fact that working without the support of the President of the United States would be adding to the difficulty of gathering the newly called Slayers and training them. The painful headache she was having right now was enough to convince her not to think about it until after a good night's sleep.

Sighing, the blonde slayer felt her eyelids growing heavy and welcomed the darkness that overcame her so quickly.

Nowhere near California, at Cheyenne Mountain, SG1 was bringing bags of books, trinkets and weapons from another planet. It was by far the most fruitful mission done in years, rendering it slightly suspicious. Doctor Jackson nearly jumped when Jack was trying to help him carry all the books which were all very old in appearance. While waiting for the debriefing, Daniel was already nose deep in a collection of legends about a mythical warrior who appeared across the Earth. The book was in a variation of Sumerian that was lost to the world but he was able to approximate the meaning with smattering of Ancient and a modern version of Sumerian. The most amazing thing was that it was found on a deserted planet with nothing more than a few temples and pyramids.

The weapons were already in Sam's lab. They were to be analyzed to figure out how to use them against the Goa'uld. She was at the moment sorting the weapon to 'organize' her lab for research, meaning she was planning to stay all night figuring out their functions.  
>General Hammond sat in the briefing room waiting for the remaining members of SG1. Jack was playing with his chair, Daniel acting like a possessed man, furiously turning the pages and taking notes.<p>

Sam finally came in as Jack was beginning to make paper balls and was about to throw them at Daniel - annoying the linguist being his favorite pastime. The General straightened up as Teal'c followed after her, coming back from an after-mission check-up in the infirmary.

"Well we can begin at last!" To say that the General was relieved to see them would be a understatement. He wanted nothing more than to finish with this and go home for the night. President Hayes wanted to see him personally in Washington DC tomorrow and he had no idea why.

"Report Colonel!"

"Yes sir! We brought several artifacts back from that boring planet, Daniel had his fix in boring things and Sam collected every technology she could find. I watched the two suns and made sure Danny didn't drool too much over the books. Teal'c here was his usual stoic self, securing the perimeter, not that there was anything to secure…"

General Hammond couldn't even pretend to want to reprimand the Colonel. He was sad to say that he had gotten used to the way Jack did things. He felt his lips twitching as he responded.

"Well, I am happy that the mission to X57645 was… uneventful! I want details about what you found. And I want your individual report for the day after tomorrow. I will be going to DC at 0700 to meet with the President."

Captain Carter straightened and addressed the General.

"Yes sir! Permission to speak freely?"

"Go ahead."

"The main artifact that we found is some sort of rock. I don't know yet the purpose of the rock. But there are some runes on the base; I would like Daniel to take a look later today."

The General nodded to show his approval, giving Dr Jackson photos of the runes in question.

"I assume the samples taken of this rock, show that its origins are extraterrestrial?"

At the question, Sam looked hesitant. Jack leaned forward, feeling that the conversation was going to be more interesting. Teal'c raised an eyebrow questionably.

"Actually, sir… No. The sample I took seemed to show it to be originally from Earth."

"What?" Jack cried, expressing the general opinion when he shouted out loud.

The General calmly told her to resume her explication.

"Explain yourself please Major Carter."

She took a deep breath.

"I don't know enough yet. I am not far enough in my research to pronounce with absolute certainty but I can tell you already that the rock is from Earth. To be exact based on the composition of the soil and coloring of the rock, it is from Western Africa. The rock is Old… really old but at the same time it seems unmarked by time, I had to use a laser to extract a small amount of powder from it to study. It is quite fascinating."

Daniel jumped excitedly.

"This means that when the Goa'uld took humans from Earth making them slaves, they took this artifact with them for some reason… It could be important. I have to translate this. The only one I recognize from memory is 'Protector' or 'Guardian'."

"The rock is old, but that's not possible! If it had been on that planet that long it would be dust today or at least have some part of it start to decay. Even if the Rock is simple earth from Africa, its composition has some component that protects it from the ravages of time but even that cannot withstand millions of years in the same climate. It must have been thousands of years that it was there no less no more. Besides …"

She brought another photo and showed it to Daniel. He looked at it and took out his loupe to examine the writings. It was a photo of the base of the Artifact, there was a carving in the form of a hand and…

"That's Fascinating… but impossible. It would mean someone knew we were coming…"

She nodded vigorously, eyes brightening like every time she found something to figure out.

"That's what I thought too! But look!"

She pointed out something more completely forgetting the others, making Jack even more frustrated.

"What are you talking about? I swear when you two are in the same room…"

He shut up suddenly when Daniel passed him the photo. His eyes bulged comically as he stared again at the writings just below the hand carving. He passed it to Teal'c who merely raised the other eyebrow and looked at O'Neill who was still in shock.

"Are you kidding me? Tell me you are kidding…"

"Colonel what is this about?" The General Hammond demanded, feeling more and more impatient.

"Colonel you might want to see this and report it to the President."

"Why?"

He put on his glasses before accepting the paper from Teal'c. He read quickly and raised his eyes with surprise.

"It's in English! _Explorers of the faraway planets, among whom there is a man whose gene is one of the Ancient: For the Chosen one, savior of the Earth, this is to give._"

They all stayed quiet for a moment, before the General spoke again.

"Do we have a breach?"

His question was addressed to Carter.

"No Sir! I think someone put it there for us years before any of us knew about the Stargate. I did not observe any anomalies to the system, the self-destruct protocol is still in order and there would be traces if they did enter. It is extremely difficult to hack into the SGC. And the alarm would…"

She was interrupted by the blaring sound of an alarm that went off noisily. They rose quickly and ran swiftly to the Control room. Major Carter sat in front of the main computer and began tapping furiously. She then announced, her expression turning worried.

"Sir, we do **have** a breach!"

*_A few hours earlier._*

Waking brutally, Buffy grasped her womb struggling to breathe. She was burning, it was worse than before, much worse. She tried to stand on her trembling feet, falling to one knee before taking hold of a chair to stand up again. Taking shuddering breaths, she was able to reach the bathroom were she put herself under the cold water of the shower. Taking off her clothes, she became progressively calmer, her breathing becoming more stable.

After a few minutes, the burning sensation lessened enough to allow the slayer to inspect her wound. She was actually worrying about having opened the stitches. But when she took off the dressings…

Her eyes opened widely.

"What…" Buffy said weakly. She hesitantly touched the angry red but otherwise unscarred skin, not believing it.

She reached to touch where the entrance wound should be on her back and inspected her hand for blood. Nothing…

'What is happening to me?'

She returned to the bedroom, searching the bags of clothes they bought last night at the local shops. Quickly putting a big t-shirt on was the only thing she could do before suddenly being overcome by an intense desire to sleep, Buffy staggered to her bed, dropping asleep immediately as if nothing had happened. She couldn't resist it...

Going unnoticed by the Chosen one, at the end of the bed, lay the weapon that chose her to be their savior and its bearer. The Scythe's handle near its stake end was a bright red as if it would burn any person besides its owner who dared to touch it…

When she came back to herself, one look at the clock told her that she did not sleep more than four hours. Damn Slayer metabolism! So after a quick shower, she decided to go see if Willow or Dawn were already up. Faith had gone to L.A to see Robin and the wounded. Most of the new slayers left to see their parents, Giles probably saw to that, only Kennedy and Lisa remained. The first for obvious reasons and the latter because she wanted to go to New York so she was going with them. But coming from a wealthy family, Kennedy already had new clothes and money brought by her driver.

Buffy felt weirdly rested despite the short night of sleep. She did ask Willow to search the Initiative's remaining files about any other secret project that they should worry about. Until they could find a way to track all the new slayers, Willow would not have much to do. But that was not going to be too long, after all the Council found them one way or another.  
>What has happened the night before freaked her out therefore she chose not to think about it until she was able to have some answers. The incident seams far in her mind. She just didn't need another thing to worry about. It would have to wait until the situation was less complicated…<p>

She stumbled into the lobby where she was relieved to see Willow in one of the couch occupying the Hall of the hotel. Buffy did not want to go to her room with Kennedy in there. The red haired Wicca raised her head from the computer at the sound.

"Ah! Buffy, I found something!"

The slayer sat beside her and looked at the screen, waiting for the explanation.

"What? Is there some sort of military raising demonic monsters of Frankenstein? Or is it some sort of unlimited kind of black ops project?"

Willow grinned at her bored tone and answered.

"I don't know about that, not that it would have surprised me, but I only have two names of similar black ops projects. First, buried so deep that I had to hack into the not so secret military database in the Pentagon, there is a phantom agency that founded a big part of the Initiative. It is the NID which is some sort of National Intelligence Department. They have a lot of Rogue branches, though. Their goal is to… officially… collect important artifacts and technologies which I suppose is the cover story only. The other is Deep Space Telemetry which is the cover name for a military command named SGC. I don't know yet what it is. I was about to hack into their database when you came in."

Buffy took an apple and leaned back.

"Go ahead."

For the next ten minutes, using a combination of computer skills and magic, she watched as Willow tapped calmly on her laptop while eating her own apple. Occasionally, Buffy would hear her say something like 'oh! They spotted me… Opps', she would then take another bite of her apple before tapping a little more on the computer. Finally, after a while, she put her luminous hands on top of the laptop and then set it down on the table.

"Done!"

"Did they know you were there?"

*_A few minutes ago_*

"Sir, we do **have** a breach!"

Major Carter was struggling with the system's security protocols and couldn't find a clear trace of the intruder nor what they are interested in. It was as if they were not there. Whoever hacked into government secure systems must be really skilled but this was beyond belief. The breach was made in their system in no more than a few minutes, the firewalls and protocols did not even slow them.

"Sir I can't find anyone! I don't know…"

She didn't get the chance to finish her sentence when the alarm stopped and the security protocols shut down. Everything was back to normal in less than 2 seconds. A green highlighted message appeared on all the computers causing the staff to relax. Sam could only look at the screen helplessly.

"False alarm! What… I don't believe this! "

Willow looked a bit sheepish.

"They have a strong security system, an alarm that goes off at every suspicious activity. But I covered my tracks, no big. It won't be a problem anymore; I took everything so it is going to be a while till we have something concrete."

"Ok. I am going to wake Dawnie and Lisa to prepare for the flight. Keep me posted!"

Less than an hour later, after a quick shower, with her duffel bag, she was knocking on Dawn's hotel room door which she knew she was sharing with Lisa. The new young slayer had impressed Buffy greatly in the last battle, she knew she had martial arts training beforehand but her concentration and intelligence when in battle were really good. She was extremely focused during the fight, handling an axe like she had done so since she was four. The only thing that worried her is that she did not really make good friends with the other potentials. She was quiet, focused on the mission but she reminded Buffy too much of Kendra. Without attachments, the desire to remain alive is not strong enough. The only thing she noticed is that now that the fight was over, Lisa was more relaxed and stayed near Dawn. They got along…

Unsurprisingly, Lisa opened the door to let Buffy in. No verbal invitation, good girl…

The room was pretty much like hers; the only difference was that there were two beds rather than one and an old TV put on a small table. Buffy grinned with malice as the sight of Dawn's sleeping form. That was an open invitation to a prank. OK! It was vengeance time… She went to the bathroom and took a glass of water before spotting Lisa on the door with a large bucket. She smiled widely at her before taking it from her. She started the freezing cold water in the shower and waited impatiently till the bucket was completely full. She went back into the room, finding that Lisa had deserted the area.

'Devious little thing!' Buffy thought. But despite that fact, Buffy fought the urge to laugh, she was happy that Lisa was connecting to someone even if that someone was her and her sister. God knew Dawn could use some friends of her age!  
>She prepared herself at last.<p>

'Sorry Dawn but you were asking for it!'

She lifted the bucket easily with her strength and emptied it on her sleeping little sister. Dawn let out a screech so loud that it left her inner ears ringing for a few minutes. She jumped up from the bed, furious.

"Buffy!"

The only sound that could be heard was Buffy's snickers and her sister's loud shrieks.

An hour later the three of them, Buffy, Dawn (still mad at them, she discovered that Lisa had a part in the prank) and Lisa were in the hall to say their goodbyes. The two sisters were going for a few weeks and Lisa was to be in New York until she was informed of what was to be done with the new slayers. The Scythe was already in the Taxi in an enchanted bag, courtesy of Willow. Performing magic seemed so easy now that she was filled with white magic, the red haired woman still tested the boundaries without rush.

Buffy's smile disappeared slowly as she saw Xander's glares. And beside him was another man she had never seen before. However, even if she did not know him, she could recognize a watcher everywhere.

'Why me…'

"Miss Summers I presume…" The stranger said, the English accent being a dead giveaway. He marched her way.

The two sisters responded.

"Yes!"

He smiled tightly at the younger Summers.

"I was addressing The Slayer, Young lady. I am Richard Preastly, I am one of the few remaining members of the Board of the Council. I trust you know what I am here for…"

Buffy continued to stare at him coldly before spotting Giles coming from the reception. His eyes widened at the sight of his Slayer with one of his old acquaintances from the Council. No doubt, the little snake was hiding in the States when the Council's main quarters were destroyed. He narrowed his eyes and approached them carefully knowing from the look on Buffy's face that she was about to explode.

"What is happening here?"

Preastly turned to address the newcomer, recognizing him right away.

"Rupert Giles! I was led to believe you were dismissed from your duties? I did not expect to see you here, I am sorry to say it."

"Ah Yes… It's quite alright. I am here on my own recognizance. Now what are you doing here, Richard? I believe you are quite far from your… usual standard of hospitality. The last time it was a Castle in France, I believe. How is unemployment treating you?"

"The Council is not gone; it is merely waiting to take control of the Slayer line again. Now I believe, my business is with Miss Summers here." The old Watcher answered, his eyes narrowing dangerously, choosing to ignore the accusations.

They paused a moment in stupefied silence. Suddenly, they heard Buffy begin to laugh hysterically. She continued for a few moments, approaching the Council member at a brisk pace. That morning, she did not dress to strike fear into someone, she was in a black and white dress with comfortable shoes. Her hair was in a high ponytail and she was sporting only a little make up. However, at that moment, to the others she looked downright scary; her blackened eyes were burning with fire, anger and resentment. Just in front of him, she stopped, still smiling with a maniacal gleam in her eyes. The man struggled not to back off. Showing his strength, he stood proud, knowing he had to show her who was controlling the situation.

"So? What now?"

Surprised, the Watcher didn't even have time to respond.

"You want control, is that it? You want me to what… Drop everything and go with you?"

At that, he had the grace to look pompous.

"It is your duty after all!"

She let out a bitterly cold laugh and approached closer, causing him to back up this time clearly frightened. She regarded him seriously.

"Watchers have lost their way. I am not saying all of them did, Giles is a good example of how a watcher should be… The duty of the Slayer is not to be a toy for men to play with! Oh! Let's put her here then lets relocate her there… oh why not test her on her 18th birthday to make sure she doesn't survive."

Buffy raised her voice progressively before shouting the last part, throwing her duffle bag down violently. She resumed her monologue interrupting his attempts to talk.

"And why not take her from her family? After all, she shouldn't have any distractions or desire to stay alive. Of course, every slayer has a death wish. So! Why the hell not make her situation even worse? She should go out at night and hope not to survive the night, because she is an expendable tool. One dies another is Called… Bid deal!"

"I… Miss Summers! Can you p…please calm down! Traditions are what make the Council, The same Council of Watchers that existed ever since the Slayer was created! Without traditions… I don't even want to consider what the Council would be like."

"Well you know what? We don't want a Watcher's Council like that! Our Council should be one that offers council and ACTIVE help to slayers; one where watchers and slayers help each other and where they actually receive funding to survive on other things than flipping steaks in a burger shop; where they get education, support and clothes! I say the New Council should be one of Watchers **AND SLAYERS**."

"Well said!" Surprisingly, it was Giles that said it.

"NO!"

The scream of anger came from Preastly.

"Generations of watchers can't be changed because one slayer doesn't see fit!"

Buffy smiled watched him riling himself up.

"That's where you are wrong and your information is out dated! You believe that you can still overpower The Slayer despite the very few watchers remaining. But you are wrong!"

"What do you mean? Cease immediately your childish attitude, we have a lot to do!"

She circled him, watching him become more and more agitated.

"You see… I don't think I am going to tell you. No… You'd be too scared."

"W… What?"

She whispered in his ear: "More than a thousand Slayers in the world and more are awakening every day. And before you think of making your pass at the New Council who will be in the hands of Rupert Giles; you might want to think of the thousands of memories of the watcher's Council from the past slayers_ including me_ these girls get when they are called. Trust me; they don't want to be treated like the slayers before them. If you resort to violence, you will have thousands of slayers coming for you."

At that point, the man was shaking. Buffy didn't know if it was fear or anger. But it didn't matter anymore; she reached out with one hand and hit him on the back of the neck. He was unconscious in one movement. Xander stilled with surprise.

"What do you think you are doing? Slayers are not supposed to hurt humans!"

She turned to look at him, disappointed in him. He really thought the worst of her… She pushed her hurt away and looked stubbornly away fixing a point in the wall.

"Slayers are not supposed to kill humans, not defend themselves… That's all I am going to say, Xander."

"How is this defending yourself?" Xander cried.

"Why Buffy? You know better…" Giles said it sounding so disappointed that Buffy felt her heart break. They still didn't trust her judgment. Even Giles whom she thought was now supporting her in her decisions… She thought their friendships were healing… She thought everything was going to be ok…

Feeling tears threatening to fall, she turned her back on them and started to walk toward the exit, Dawn after her. She paused a moment in the threshold and addressed Willow who was looking at the scene with deep sad eyes.

"Willow, I think it's best for everyone if this man forgets about the New Slayers and thinks that I am dead or on the run… I can't let him go after them… better me than them. Some things are just too important."

The last past was said softly but the young witch felt her tears falling on her cheeks. She nodded and hugged her tightly.

"Don't worry! I will take care of everything… enjoy yourselves."

The two sisters left, Lisa trailing behind. The young slayer approached the fallen Watcher. She took his hand in hers and showed it to everyone. In his hand, still clasped tightly was a syringe of pink liquid. Giles gasped for air as he recognized the drug from the Test that Buffy had passed on her 18th birthday. He knew then that he had made a horrible mistake.

"I don't know about you but I think he wouldn't have accepted no as an answer."

Lisa took the duffel Buffy left and exited the room to join them in the taxi. The driver was ordered to take off as soon as she sat in the car.

Not looking back, Buffy did not stop the taxi when she heard Giles and Xander calling her name.

'_Everything will not be alright_'

**END OF CHAPTER**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything besides original characters.**

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

**Chapter four:**Going Past it.

The wall was startlingly white- well not really it was brownish as expected from a crappy motel… With his only eye, Xander was watching it for a long time and was now starting to get sick. He couldn't understand the man he became. He knew he screwed up this time but he couldn't stop himself. There was a deep anger in him that he mistakenly redirected on Buffy. It wasn't right and he knew it himself. Something broke in him when he realized that Anya really died and if he didn't resolve it, he was going to lose one of the best friends he ever had. And that was something Xander didn't want. For a young man like him, having grown up in an unhappy house made him realize that perhaps sometimes, family isn't necessarily blood related. Buffy was family.

Family should be there for each other.

He didn't know when he lost his blind confidence in Buffy but accusing her to hurt humans was too much. She couldn't kill Ben when she defeated Glory; Giles had to do it. Xander didn't even know for sure if she knew it and chose to ignore it or if she really didn't know it at all. Giles probably had the same problem.

_'How did they become like this?'_

Actually now that he recalled, he was the one encouraging the potentials to trust Buffy with their lives not too long ago, like they did themselves. They understood the power and strength of a slayer but also her responsibility of leadership. A leadership always encouraged by Giles and it was a necessary leadership. We weren't even meant to participate in this war but the Slayer was; something in her constitution made her just the right thing for this sort of situation. And Buffy always found her way into victory even at such price as her life. It was wrong of us to accuse her of the price it took her to save the world this time. At that time, Giles was probably even pushing her to kill Dawn before Glory could get her. But then the whole vineyard event happened and several girls died making him forget that she was doing her best. What she could do the save Dawn's life, she couldn't do then because it would have victory for the First as the best bet to win against him would just have flown away. Everyone forgot that her best was not going to save all of them but it WAS going to save the world and that they were supposed to help her. He forgot that along the way, she lost her life too many times because it was necessary. He guessed bitterly that they weren't ready to do the same…

He was one of those who threw her out of her home adding to the danger clinging to her every day. Damn… He didn't even recognize himself.

Sick of his dark musings, he quickly took out his phone and called a taxi.

"… Yes, in an hour please!"

He shut it down and put together his clothes. The one eyed carpenter went out and knocked on the neighboring room. Giles, without glasses, opened his door after a few seconds looking ten years older than his age. Sighting, the older man rubbed tiredly his eyes to see the blurry outline of Xander's shape more clearly.

"Xander, I don't want to talk right now. I…"

Xander interrupted before the watcher could finish his last sentence.

"I can't do it!" The young man exclaimed, shaking his head from left to right looking like a possessed man.

Started, Giles looked at him wonderingly.

"You can't do what?"

He opened his door more widely and noticed the bag at the young man's feet. He then looked back at Xander's face, taking note for the first time of his tearful eye that was looking everywhere but in his own eyes. Xander sighted, putting his hand on his only eye for a moment before using it to lean on the wall.

Giles watched him carefully and approached him slowly.

"Xander… Are you ok?"

"No! I am not! I can't stay like this. I don't have control on my emotions anymore and I take it out on Buffy… I…"

He stopped not knowing how to express the burning feeling inside.

"Continue… The sooner you will talk about what is really bothering you, the sooner you will feel free." Giles gently encouraged him.

Xander let out a bitter laugh and looked at him for the first time in the eye.

"Well, G-man thanks for the advice that you should follow yourself…"

He quickly lost his smile at the sad and guilty front suddenly taken by surprisingly one of his oldest friend and mentor.

"You see! That's what I meant! I can't stay here right now… I can't…"

He took a pause letting out a breath and resumed.

"I can't stay because I hurt everyone. Buffy, now you and soon it will be one of the girls or Willow. I have to… be on my own. I want to be able to be Xander again, the Xander that opened his mouth to say helpful words for his friends, or jokes even bad ones to relax the atmosphere. I want to be the Xander that would support the girl that saved us every freaking year since we met her. I should be the Xander that would help her just because he could, not blame her because of an honest mistake. She never failed us once and the first time she steps out of line we shut her down on everything… We… failed her, Giles. We took her for granted. "He tried to take control of his shuddering breath. "I want to be able to be her friend like before. Whatever thing made us do that, Post traumatic stress, madness or something, I want to get rid of it! I realize now that I don't even have the right to say this because of the scene I made when Buffy said it but… I need time on my own to be myself again or else I am going to do something stupid again."

He looked down on the floor, tears falling from his eye.

"The taxi is coming in less than 45 minutes. I am going to say good bye to Willow…"

Giles looked at him with intense sadness in his expression; he patted his back in a comforting gesture before speaking, his British accent more apparent than ever.

"You are quite right, Xander. I think every one of us is in great need of some time alone to reflect on what everyone did during this battle. I think we should at least recognize in Buffy the leader and the magnificent strategist that she is even if she doesn't want to admit it. I should say, it is our fault that she is so insecure. We always made her doubt herself, this time in Sunnydale more than ever... And we should be able to support her, she proved herself. Now it is our turn, and for this I think some precious time alone will be perfect. I will myself depart with the British slayers to London tomorrow."

After picking up his bag, Xander turned his back at Giles and began to walk to Willow's room when Giles called his name. Xander stopped without turning around.

"Do you have somewhere to go?"

"I have an aunt in Maine… I called her after the sinking, she was asking the police about me apparently and then Riley told me… She offered me a place to crash until I can find something else."

Giles nodded and raised his hand meaning to take out his glasses to clean them before realizing he didn't have them on.

"I think family can help."

Xander looked like he was going to say something more before just nodding and turning around to go meet Willow. Giles slowly shut his door, resting his back on it, looking at the mess he had done with his room. Books were everywhere from the bed, floor, table, chairs… He released a breath before going back on the chair he was using near the window. He sat down, picking up the pen on the table before resuming what he was writing previously. He turned the pages absently looking over what he had written over the years until he reached the first page. The Watcher to one of the most successful if not the most successful slayer, stroke lightly the golden transcripts.

It was there, right on the cover: _"The memoirs of a Slayer: Buffy Summers"_.

* * *

><p>Dawn watched from the corner of her eyes her sister hunched over sitting in those waiting chairs at the airport. She was worried. Buffy had a look of emptiness in her face. She was sitting, head lowered down, hunched over, without complaining about anything. That was probably more worrying than anything else. The younger Summers couldn't help wondering over the fact that what just happened could be what really will break her sister. The young girl sat down next to her and put a hand on her back in a reassuring way. Knowing Buffy, talking was probably the last thing she wanted to do so she contented herself by being close to her.<br>After a long wait, they stood up to pass security and check points. As they passed the security, with Buffy waiting for her turn with the Scythe in a Guitar case. Dawn and Lisa passed without problem happily but now was her turn.

She put the Guitar Case on the table to open it followed by her bag. Holding a breath, she opened her bag before moving to open the case, stalling as long as she could. At the same time, the airport security officer was inspecting something in her passport and talking in the phone. That was worrying… He turned back to his colleague, making a hand signal.

"Mam' you are clear…"

She took her hint and hurried with her bags toward her sister and sister slayer.

As she was nearing them, Buffy had a weird feeling.

_'That was way too easy…'_

Instinctively, she turned around and confirmed her suspicion as she saw a woman close to her age approaching them. The woman had a regal air around her, like she was from royalty, which she could be for all Buffy knew, looking at the dozen men surrounding the area and those undercover or trying to be. Undercover agents tended to be highly trained at not being noticed but Buffy was no ordinary person or Slayer for that matter. She did a quick sweep of the area and managed to spot ten other agents; among them were two couples passing for a traveling group but their eyes were on them too much for them to be an ordinary couple, two others were posted at the entrance of the book store, one was a seemingly elderly woman traveling with a dog but a mini radio in hand was not standard for an old woman. The others were airport security detail themselves but what gave them away was that they were too detached about passport controls now that Buffy and the two other girls were past security. The woman approaching them was obviously in charge despite her young age, she seemed to be close to 26 or 27 only. She was wearing a close fitting baby blue dress that was reaching just above her knees, and 6 inches matching heels decorated with small diamonds on the front. Buffy nearly salivated at the beauty of these shoes.

Finally reaching them, the woman stopped before Buffy, smiling kindly. Suddenly the weird feeling Buffy had come back in force as she handed her hand to welcome the older woman. Eyes widely open, the Sunnydale Slayer felt the power surrounding the woman before her; it was like what she was feeling from Lisa. For a moment, as she concentrated, she even could see some sort of blue aura coming from within the girl_ from her heart_ contrasting with the one Lisa had. It was like the power was coming from the heart, expanding by slim treads to the head, the arms and the rest of the body attaching itself to the muscles and bones… reinforcing them, giving them power. Finally as the other woman began to talk in a very apparent English accent, clasping Buffy's hand in hers, the Slayer understood what the feeling was.

What Willow awakened with the Scythe… it was pulsing with power… even now. She could feel it with her hand on hers.

"Hello Miss Summers! I am enchanted to meet you. I heard so much about your exploits…"

She couldn't finish her phrase as Buffy felt compelled to talk. The latter spoke so low that only a slayer could have heard.

"You are a Slayer, aren't you?"

The other woman and Lisa opened their eyes widely in surprise. The stranger let escape a small gasp, causing the guards to move in alarm before she let them know nothing was wrong in a distracted gesture of her hand. Her in charge agent seemed reluctant but returned to his position, looking at Buffy suspiciously. She looked wonderingly at Buffy, her expression turning from surprise to awe.

"How…?"

Buffy relaxed, somehow feeling relieved. She heard Lisa tell to a jumping Dawn that the stranger was a slayer, causing her to calm down too. She smiled sadly, lying without noticing as she responded.

"I was a slayer for a long time. I know what a slayer feels like but the real question is: who exactly are you? Besides being a slayer, you seem to be someone important seeing that more than 25 agents are guarding you right now. And what I want to know is what does someone like you want with me?"

The other woman smiled, looking at the surprised and disappointed undercover agents that were so proud of not being noticed just a few minutes ago. Shaking her reddish brown hair, she proceeded to the presentations.

"My name is Mary Boleyn and I am the newly British appointed liaison for the Council… that is, if there is still one."

"Oh… and what happened to the last one?" Buffy asked genuinely curious and not impressed.

Mary just smirked.

"I will be replacing my predecessor The Lord McBaring who… let's say it retired rather forcefully for hiding information about what was really happening with the former Council like where the funding went. The information stayed within the hidden corner of The Ministry files and never reached the Royal family. So… I… let's just say… insisted to be appointed to the position."

Now, Buffy was impressed but she couldn't help narrowing her eyes, thinking about the Council.

"I trust things will change? Because I am really not agreeing with how things were done before so a lot is going to change on my watch!" Buffy responded firmly, steel in her gaze.

An agent approached slowly to whisper to Mary.

"Lady Boleyn, we are going to be late."

She merely nodded, turning back to resume talking to Buffy and the other two girls.

"I agree totally, I have a feeling we are going to be getting along just fine now that you are going to be head of the New Council. And before you ask, only the Queen and my security detail know what I am. I suggest we talk about this on the plane; I was informed you were going to New York and I took the freedom to book you seats in the private plane made to our disposition to continue our discussion. Don't worry your luggage's are going to follow."

With that, Mary took a bewildered Buffy by the arm and ushered her toward the plane.

"But…"

"I assure you, it is more comfortable than the seats you reserved. And there will be Champagne and cheese!"

Buffy frowned, slightly confused.

"Did you talk to Willow?"

"No but I have other resources…" Mary said, smiling and gently leading her.

Dawn and Lisa followed slightly awed and amused.

"I like her!" Dawn grinned, seeing Buffy taken away by the hyperactive member of the British royal family.

* * *

><p>"I definitely like you!" Dawn was sipping from her glass of Champagne _despite being a small one at Buffy's orders_ and eating the small delicious '<em>canapés<em>'.

On the plane, Buffy listened to Dawn and Mary's chattering until she fell half asleep after drinking a glass of Champagne that made her slightly woozy. Besides her, Lisa was reading a guide book about New York which Buffy found a little disconcerting as the girl was from New York.

As for Mary, Buffy liked her; she was serious about her job even if she could just pass it over like the old man who was in the position before her. On one hand, the British government was too much linked to the Council not to know how the Slayers were treated, so she didn't trust them. On the other hand, having someone as important as a member of the Royal family can reveal to be an excellent asset; and it would also be the main solution for maintaining a speaking relationship with the government. Of course, being a slayer helped but Mary wasn't obligated to take care of the slayers. Apparently she didn't even know about the fact that there were two slayers not just one in this generation. As a girl, she was more than okay, she liked shopping, she was funny, simple, earned her own bread even if she was royalty and she was generous; Buffy could picture herself becoming friend with her if it wasn't for the circumstances. She wasn't ready to lose one more friend; she wasn't fit to be friend with anyone right now… She wasn't in the right state of mind.

Dawn looked at her sister, worry in her eyes. Her expression was caught by Mary.

"I heard so much about your sister and your whole group. I believe you call yourself the Scoobies? I thought it was actually another Slayer we were going to meet. I heard about a great battle a few years back. That must have been a close one for Buffy, right?"

Dawn visibly closed off at this.

"Yes… a close one, like you said." She said bitterly. "Buffy manages to always surprising us."  
>Dawn had no intention of going on the details of the battle against Glory or the fact that Buffy did indeed die because of her… that was too much personal information shared for a woman she just met. What happened in Sunnydale these past few months made her forget everything Buffy had done for her, how much she sacrificed for her…? Remembering that was like emptying freezing water filled bucket on her head. Remembering that made her regret so much things said, made her wish she could go back in time and take her sister in her arms when what she truly did was throwing those hateful words at her. Mary talking was what got her out of her dark thoughts.<p>

"Has something happened these past few months? She gives the right illusion that she is doing ok but… her eyes say otherwise."

The young girl's lips were tightly shut for a few moments before opening her mouth to respond.

"It was hell…"

Mary tried to say something but Dawn wasn't finished.

"There were the worst moments of our lives and we were really afraid but it's not even an excuse. We… we screwed up. We broke her trust and we didn't trust her anymore. I will regret it all my life but I know I was the one that pushed her to her limits. We did wrong but I did worse than anyone."

"What happened exactly? No one knows for sure anything but the fact that every potential is a chosen one now…"

For the first time, Lisa put her input on the discussion.

"They are not chosen ones, they are slayers; the last chosen one is Faith."

"What is the difference? If I am going to take care of the position between British government and The Council I need to know that." Mary asked curiously.

"Chosen ones are chosen by the Power that be. Faith and Buffy were chosen by fate, we were called by Willow. We are slayers but not Chosen."

"Willow Rosenberg, right? Is she as powerful as they say she is?"

Dawn snorted glad to talk about something else.

"More than you can imagine. Do you know the power needed to call one Slayer? Imagine hundreds or even thousands. The power needed is really impressive: the power of a God."

Mary couldn't help but feel worried and slightly alarmed at that before Dawn reassured her.

"Her worst phase is over. She is now filled with good magic with help from the Scythe's magic. You don't have to worry, just don't upset her too much".

As she said that phrase, they all jumped a little in their seats when Buffy opened her eyes abruptly, looking at a spot above her head. Suddenly, a box fell from nowhere into Buffy's lap who woke up completely at that. It felt like Willow's energy: a green glow was surrounding the box. She opened it up and grinned looking at the others and took from the box chocolate chip cookies, brownies and other goodness from it.

She passed it to them. The box was huge, hundreds of cookies and brownies were in it. Buffy only said:

"That's an apology from Willow!"

"Oh Gimme Gimme!"

Dawn was literally giggly on her seat.

The others could only watch, very surprised. Fishing a bag of white chocolate cookies, Lisa passed the box to a delighted Dawn who took out her specially made weird mix: peanut butter, gum and Tuna. No need to say, her name was written on the plastic bag!

"Hey I want to be friends with her too!" Mary exclaimed as she munched on her brownies and holding protectively her white and black chocolate cookies.

"It's ! Why didn't anyone warn me before?"

* * *

><p>Arriving at New York, the cold was unbearable for Buffy seeing as she didn't buy a coat. She turned to take on the scene constituting all the others bundled up warmly and glared at Dawn who sighted and gave her a spare coat.<p>

"I knew you would forget. Sooo… I packed one for you. Take it you big baby."

Mature as she was, Buffy met her little sister's insult by putting on the coat and turning her back on her, arms crossed.

"Girls, I booked a hotel in nice street filled with shops, you are more than welcome to stay in my suite! Let's go the car is waiting." Mary decided to interrupt, as she led the way to a white limousine waiting just outside the airport.

The three girls looked at the car, impressed, not even remarking the looks the passerby's were giving them. Buffy shrugged, deciding it was a nice idea to economize what little money she had for her and Dawn.

After half an hour or so, as Dawn was fast asleep and Lisa was watching the passing buildings pensively; Mary opened her briefcase and took out a big file with 'TOP SECRET' written in red big letters and handing it over to Buffy who took it.

Opening the file calmly, she began to read before raising her head back to look at Mary in the eyes.

"I had to pull every string I had to have this file printed without blackening every line of it. I thought you would be interested seeing as the president wants to appoint you in charge of all –let's say it- the unnatural matters. The SGC will soon have members from every country in their personnel; needless to say, it is going to be a big mess." The British girl said seriously.

"How soon will it be?" Buffy asked.

"In a year or so, every information this black ops program will have, the other government will have too; including China, Russia, France… This is not even the most worrying thing. Check out the last report."

Buffy reached the last report, going over it quickly, before turning her gaze on Mary again, steel in her eyes.

"I need to know if I can trust you." She asked fiercely.

"You can trust me! I assure you after reading about the whereabouts of all those young slayers… I didn't know, so I couldn't do anything. But now, I can help them, I want to help them! We are sisters slayers; we have to take care of each other." She reached over to take her hand. "If the information about that rock goes out, who knows what will happen to us! Someone has to have an idea about what it is about, how it works and who know if there are demons in high positions of the government, or crazy scientists or whatever… What if that device was important to the Slayer Line?"

Buffy watched her for a few moments before nodding.

"Willow hacked in their files; she is decoding them right now we will have more about this soon. I will talk to the president about overseeing the program. If he refuses, we'll see about a more radical solution to the problem."

* * *

><p>Xander sauntered in the motel kitchen, calmer than five minutes before. The room was empty of all staff, seeing as the motel was made in their disposition by Riley and the United State government. He saw Willow closing a huge box with blue ribbons, several plastic bags of cookies where left beside it as she couldn't put them in it. As she saw him, Willow smiled happily and approached him handing him two bags of pastries. She then took a plate of cookies to Kennedy, who was sitting in a small table with… Was that the old Watcher?<p>

Stupefied and speechless Xander looked at them as Willow brought him cookies and tea, sitting next to Kennedy and doing as if nothing happened. He then hesitantly tried to talk, testing the waters.

"What… What is going on?"

"Xander, come on! Sit with us!" Willow patted the chair next to her.

Kennedy put her input into it, her dark brown eyes dancing with mirth, clearly enjoying Xander's confusion.

"Yes, come on! We are waiting for the British Prime Minister to meet us! Right, Mister Preastly?"

The young man could only say, as intelligently as he could: "Huh?"

The old British watcher made a show of straightening his costume, sitting poised in his chair and crossing his legs.

"Yes! I have a meeting with him in ten minutes. Oh these scones are absolutely delicious!"

"Oh this scone is absolutely delicious alright!" Kennedy said as she took a cookie, smirking.

Xander looked from the British man, to Willow's grinning face and lastly to Kennedy who enjoyed very much whatever was going on. He couldn't watch it anymore when the man tried to get up thinking he was the Prime minister, he even tried offering him the said 'scones'.

"Prime minister… what the hell? Willow? Did I fall in another dimension when I wasn't looking? And that's a cookie for God's sake!"

Willow took him by the arm to drag him just outside the kitchen.

"Don't worry M. Preastly I will make him up to speed with your case!"

"Ah alright then! I will be waiting!"

The one eyed young man looked at Willow pointedly in the eye, trying to convey Giles through his persona (and failing).

"Ok what did you do?"

"Here's the deal: you know Buffy said to make him forget! So I looked over every memory spells I knew until I remembered I didn't even have to do it because let's face it memory spells are extremely dangerous so I made this suggestive potion to replace. But I didn't have frog saliva so I couldn't complete it and trust me I don't want to be this close to a frog either so I thought why make a potion at all. All I need is aromatic psycho-hypnotic tea to add to the suggestion and a spell on my voice to reinforce the feeling of comfort adding to that a small illusion effect to make him believe we are in England waiting just outside Prime Minister' office eating scone and drinking tea. This meeting will have the supposed purpose of giving him a raise and the control of an extremely secret operation. Well actually the operation is going to lead to him seating home listening to months-long recordings of this secret spy thing… so it's actually going to be retirement but hey! He's going to be out of our feet! Oh and by the way for the scone… I tried to make them but that was a HUGE fail. You'd think it is easy to do those little British scones but they are only deceptively easy I stopped after the sixth batch…."

Xander interrupted when he saw she was becoming blue.

"Willow! Willow! Breathe! Don't forget to breathe. There…. Good. Now, I did not understand everything but what I want you to tell me is if you are good with using magic again."

"Yes actually, I feel this amazing white magic in me… It's like she cleaned me of every black magic still in me. I still don't know yet how to use it but I feel like I can access every plant, every particle of water, every live thing in the world. Don't worry, I am not going to do the same mistake as before. I thought a lot about it."

She walked to the kitchen, reaching the Box she made for Buffy. She thought about it, if she couldn't feel Buffy, she feel Lisa and Dawn. She closed her eyes for a minute, calming herself. She felt Xander's soothing energy come near her.

"I know Buffy and the girls are in the air. The air around them is imprinted with their energy."

She concentrated, a slight breeze making her hair move a little. When she opened her eyes, Xander saw her green eyes look back at him not the black ones he was nearly expected to see. He saw then one strand of her hair becoming white as the Box disappeared in a blur, leaving Xander blinking stupidly.

"It's done!"

Her hair normal again, she beamed at her childhood friend, proud of herself. Xander grimaced.

"Did you just send the box to Buffy….The Buffy who is taking a commercial flight right now to New York?"

Willow then grimaced too. "That was not my best idea…"

Then she saw his bag, took in his entire change of behavior when he saw she noticed. She looked at his sad eyes.

"Where… where are you going?"

"Willow… You saw how I was with Buffy. I have to take some time to vend off."

"It's not your fault and it's not her fault. You should know that…" Willow whispered, eyes watering with emotions.

"I… I know but we did a big mistake and to go past that I should go reflect sometime."

The red haired witch chose to say nothing, and just watched him go to the exit. She went back to the kitchen, ignoring Preastly's blabbering and looked by the window as his taxi left. She opened her mind link with him to send him a last message: _'Take care of yourself'_.

**Thanks for reading!**

Faimyest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** See previous chapters!

**Chapter Five:** Out of control.

'_Chosen one_'

Buffy never felt so in peace. She looked up, realizing she was underwater. The sun was shining; the water felt warm, welcoming and so blue, so pure… Underneath her feet was a city protected by an invisible dome or force-field stopping the water from coming in. No urgency felt, and surprisingly no need to breathe, she felt herself being lowered toward the city. Trying to see past her slow-moving long golden hair, she watched as she neared the underwater city. The blue glow of the sea made it look dormant. As her skin touched the force-field, it opened for her, letting her continue her descent to the city, reforming behind her. She continued to lower until she felt her bare feet meet the ground. The moment she touched the ground, the whole city lit up simultaneously, blinding her momentarily.

She felt a weird sensation of belonging as she observed her surroundings. She made her way through what appeared to be the main facility, the entrance opening for her automatically. She was in a control room; there were machines, a lot of technology the humans were not familiar with yet and years from understanding it. Instead of letters and numbers, there were strange geometrical shapes and besides it was a simple white handle linked to yet another machine. She took the handle in her hand, marveling at the sensation of sleep that overcame her, as a chair moved to place itself behind her. The holographic screen showed her that something was filling up with her energy.

Buffy, then, understood; the city was recharging at a lightning speed her batteries with her life force. She took off her hand and made her way outside the room, coming down the stairs. Soon, she found herself in front some sort of ring shaped device. Inspecting it carefully, looking at its beauty she felt drawn to it.

Suddenly, the rest of the city fell in obscurity as the device came alive. Buffy felt adrenaline rise in her, looking in anticipation at the functioning device's blue water like substance, waiting for…

Buffy opened her eyes in a start.  
>She was not in the underwater city anymore. She felt weirdly disappointed…<p>

_'It was just a dream.'_

The blond girl, stayed tucked in for a longer moment, trying to recall the details of the dream. The blue color of the water was so beautiful that she couldn't shake it off her head. Every time she closed her eyes, the picture of the blue and peaceful place came to her. Buffy was finding it weird since her first death involved her being drowned. Then what she could remember clearly was the ringed shaped device. It was beginning to wake when she woke up; it was almost like it was a portal and someone or something was using it at the moment she was pulled from the dream.

Listening to Dawn's light snoring for a moment, she then rose up. Picking up her shirt at the same time, she tried slipping up her pants, jumping up and down quietly to make them go all the way. Taking her boots out of her bag, she put them on and took her guitar case before heading out of the suite. She took the back exit not to attract attention and walked in New York's streets.

_'It's exploration time. Hope the vamps are out.'_

Buffy needed the work out to release the pent up tension she had building up quickly. Spotting one vampire snacking just outside the Hotel, she tossed him far away from his victim catching him by the col of his vest. The fight didn't take much time before it was over, the vampire didn't have any brain and even less brawn. Sooner rather than later, Buffy was seeking other 'baddies' in the cold night of the Big Apple.

New York was a big city, it would not be surprising to find that there were a lot of demons but all Buffy found was a few vampires and more muggers than she ever saw in one street. There were also gang wars, which thankfully she didn't encounter. The Slayer told herself she would search for demon bars another night and check out the hot spots for supernatural activity while she was in the city. You never know it might be useful.

As she was heading back toward her hotel, she heard a muffled scream at small distance. Lifting her bag, she neared the location at a swift peace. It was almost dawn so there was enough light so that the vampires were already in. So it was not a vampire.

The slayer in her rose up as she saw what was in front of her and she had a harder time than ever, controlling her.

* * *

><p>It was nearly 5 am, Mark Davenport was doing his morning jog before having to go shower and head back to the Washington DC. As he approached the end of his running time, he turned around and began running back toward his hotel.<p>

Mark was an important man at his young age; he was one of the President advisors, one that stayed on the shadows never on the public eye. His support was one of the reasons President Hayes was elected. His opinion was heard by the government, but what he wanted truly was a good government, and with Hayes it was beginning to be the case. At forty five, the adviser never regretted helping and supporting his president. Married but with no children, Mark figured if he ever had children, he would love having a safe country to raise them in. This was why he worked closely with the ones in charge of Home-World Security.

He was interrupted in his thoughts by a scream being cut off brutally. In alarm, he looked around for someone to help before running down the dark alley adjacent to the street he was in. He saw then a man trying to keep a woman in place threatening her with a knife on her neck and speaking to her in a low voice angrily. However, she was fighting with everything she had, hitting him with her legs and biting him.

Mark plunged on the man, giving the opportunity to the woman to try and get up but failing as her leg seemed to be broken. The man was built tall, broad and with strength that Mark did not have, him being a politician and not a fighter. He struggled with him, the knife cutting his hand deeply; the blood falling on his face and trailing on his arms. Unluckily, the man was somehow trained, probably an ex-soldier. He managed to throw him off of him, and then he was suddenly on him punching him numerous times and finally knocking his head on the ground making him see stars for a few moments.

Turning back again to seek the young woman, he saw her phone in hand and ran to her in a mad strike.

"You do not get to call the police! You deserve this!"

He took her by the hair, making her scream in pain and drop the phone.

"Please. Please, I will do everything you want. Don't kill me…" She begged, trying to get up on her feet but her leg was dandling uselessly in a weird angle. Crying, her hands were on her pained head, his hands still clenched tightly on her hair.

He put his head so close to hers that he could nearly just go down and kiss her. He then spoke with venom, knife in hand once more.

"Now you beg? It's too late… Tell me where my daughter is, you are going to die here anyway!"  
>Seeing her shake her head, he brought the knife, planted it on one of her hand before dragging it down.<p>

"I am going to ruin you like you ruined me! Where is she?"

She shrieked in agony, holding her arm and crying loudly until he put his hand over her mouth pushing her against the wall. He took the knife and prepared to trust again.

"You know in the marines, they teach you how to hurt with a knife without killing. Now, you know I will kill you but I want to enjoy it for a long time…"

He put the knife in the lower part of her stomach avoiding any vital organ. She opened her mouth in shock, her hand coming to touch the knife that was still in her. She began to lower herself to the ground, blood coming out from her mouth. The man, standing up with all his height towering on her, smiled bitterly, before taking out from his boot a gun. A loaded gun…

"You know, I would have preferred watching you die of blood loss… slowly… but your screams will soon bring the police and you know I have to go before they do. It too bad really! Well, I enjoyed it while it lasted."

As he was raising his gun to her head, he was tackled from the side. It was Mark in his last attempt to do what he could to save the woman.

"You! Again? Do you have a death wish?"

He held Mark's hand, taking his arm in a painful twist and twisted it even more until a crack could be heard. The Adviser screamed as he felt his arm break. He was let go, making him fall on the ground holding his arm. Turning around, he found himself in front of a gun.

"You do have a death wish. You shouldn't have run here at the first scream you heard. Too bad for you man."

Mark let out a small sound, trying to process the fact that he was going to die here, this same morning without seeing his wife one last time, without telling her he loved her. Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from behind the gun man. Before he knew it, a small blond woman was standing beside him, looking at the attacker with the blackest gaze he ever saw. He did not even see her move from behind the man to near him. She never let the man go from her range of vision as she spoke leaving the attacker totally stupefied by her appearance.

"Go check on the woman, the police and an ambulance are on their way. I am going to take care of him."

His eyes rose to look at her, from his position on the ground before struggling to get up.

"Miss, it is dangerous…"

She didn't even let him finish, as she raised her voice.

"GO now! She is losing too much blood!"

The man holding the gun was looking more and more dangerous and mad at being diminished by a little woman looking like the wind could knock her off.

Mark made, hesitantly his way around the girl to look at the woman's condition on the ground.

"You have got to be kidding, people! I am the one with the gun; everybody is going to die here… Hey! Don't move!" He screamed in anger making a move to shoot Mark in order to stop him from moving.

But just as the gun came in front of Buffy's eyes, she knocked it off from his hand with a roundhouse kick; then took his hand between hers, before breaking his wrist in a swift move of both hands, making him fall on his knees screaming in pain. But being a marine, he knew how to hold his pain in check and going for an attack. Indeed as he fell on his knees, he made an attempt to throw her off her feet with a slide kick which would have worked if Buffy hadn't already anticipated it. She stopped easily his leg with hers without letting lose his arm; she then went on punching him while trying to control her strength before aiming her knee several times on his gut, making him throw up blood and other substances he obviously eaten. Mark, as he was tending to the woman, couldn't believe his eyes. His tiny blond savior was beating up a trained marine two heads bigger than her without breaking a sweat.

"You see, guys like you, only have one place to be…"

She said to him as walked around him, looking at him like the dangerous angry Slayer she was; wanting to slay him but couldn't.

He managed to rise back on his feet.

"I suppose you are going to tell me."

She smiled at his attempt to charge at her. He threw himself at her, punching her with every little once of remaining strength he had before his momentum made him rush over to the wall. She laughed at him, touching her cheek lightly, before pouting.

"You punch like a marine. That tickled you know!"

He looked at her, eyes opening wide in shock and humiliation, before making a last desperate effort in trying to reach the gun. He threw himself on the side, near the boxes sitting next to the dumpsters where the gun laid awaiting; he then bowed down grunting in effort, seeing his prize coming nearer and nearer. However, before his hand touched the weapon, her foot hit the gun, making it fly far at the end of the alley. He dropped attempting to catch her off-guard with a low hit; but his fist was blocked by her open palm and his knee failed to connect with her gut as, in a quick motion, her leg was already sweeping his body down. He fell onto the hard ground, the fall making him moan in pain as his head hit noisily the pavement. Feeling dazed, he looked up finding her watching him. Her green colored eyes were looking vivid and glowing from an unnatural gleam as she lowered herself to speak to him, struggling to keep a reign on the Slayer part of her who wanted nothing more than take the now terrified man's head and twist it around.

As she struggled to keep her emotions in check, Buffy let the Slayer in her speak with a hollow voice.

"Your place is in hell."

She then brought up her elbow and hit him hard enough while controlling her strength as much as she could to knock him out in the process. He would be out for a long time. Buffy stayed in the same position for a moment, catching her breath, slightly perturbed to have had so much difficulty with being in perfect control. It was something she had mastered since the battle against Glory when she trained more seriously than ever with Giles. She looked down at her hand wonderingly; it was still shaking from the effort it took her not to kill the man by accident.  
>She stood up, hearing the police nearing the alley. She turned around; seeking the man she just saved with her stare. His eyes were still on the attacker on the floor.<p>

"Leave me out the story, please."

He turned his gaze toward her, startled.

"What? Why? You saved us!"

She just started to retreat in the shadows.

"Let's just say that the cops are not fond of me. Take care of the woman, please."

As she said this, the injured woman moaned a little as the ambulance parked at end of the street and the EMIs began running toward them. When he turned back to look for the blond girl, she wasn't there anymore. She disappeared.

* * *

><p>A few days later, Buffy and Dawn were standing in front of their father's office, rejected by the secretary. Buffy was arguing loudly with her as Dawn was leaning against the wall waiting for the shouting match to come to an end.<p>

"He is not available for the moment. He has an appointment with an important client. Please, come back later or make an appointment!" She repeated, not even looking up from her inspection of her freshly manicured nails. The girl was blonder than Buffy, she was in her thirties, fake from head to toe and her face had so much make up on it that it looked like a beauty salesman dropped all his merchandise on her.

Buffy clenched her hand on the desk in front of her, making the cherry wood groan. She could hear his voice whispering from here.

"You didn't even announce us!"

'I can't believe this!' Buffy thought. She was fine with being rejected by her father but to do it to Dawn was unacceptable and knowing that he somehow told his secretary not to let them in his office if they come to look for him was humiliating.

Buffy sighted in exasperation, releasing the wood from her hands.

"Alright! Don't think we won't come back! Tell him he will regret it next time."

Dawn stayed put for a moment as Buffy turned around to go back, head shaking angrily. She was still hurt her father didn't want anything to do with them. She followed out Buffy after a few moments, finding her staring strangely at the building in front of the Office. Curious, she found herself scrutinizing it, her head on the side.

"What are you looking at?"

Ignoring her, Buffy made her way in with a look of determination in her face, with an out-of-breath Dawn trying to catch up with her. They took the stairs, seeing as the building was in renovation for new offices, until reaching the twelfth floor.

Allowing herself in one of the offices, the young Slayer searched for a window and put herself in front of it. Dawn heard then Buffy exclaim loudly and then hitting the faux-wall with her clenched fist forgetting her strength.

"I knew it!"

"Just break the wall, will you?" Dawn said sarcastically.

The younger Summers joined her, sighing in exasperation. However, she stopped suddenly when she noticed that this floor's building was exactly in front of her father's. A sense of dread seemed to rise up her chest; she was suddenly feeling warm and uncomfortable. She could see his office; he was sitting in the sofa watching TV. He didn't have any 'rendezvous'… He was right there; he just didn't want to see us.

She felt Buffy put her hand on her shoulder in a comforting way.

"He doesn't matter, Dawn… "

"I know. It's just…"

Dawn couldn't finish her sentence, unable to say it.

"You had hope."

Surprised, she turned her head slightly toward her. Dawn always had hope for their father to return, she kept this for herself for years. But never once, did she imagine that Buffy felt the same. She always seemed so over it… maybe it wasn't really the case. Buffy sometimes had a hard invisible armor that was difficult to pry open even by her.

Buffy took a deep breath before speaking.

"To make you feel better, you should know that it is probably my fault that he is gone. Maybe if you go without me he will not avoid you…"

"What…" Dawn asked in a faint voice.

"What are you saying?" She repeated.

Buffy looked at the sky from the open window, crossing her arms in a seemingly uncaring manner.

"I am saying that he probably will see you if you specify that the package does not include his first born."

Shocked, Dawn stared at her, eyes watering and flaring angrily. The anger was not really directed at her; Buffy knew that.

"No! That's not true!"

"Try it! Call him, tell him you want to see him and I went back to Los Angeles." Buffy shrugged her shoulders, giving her the phone. "See for yourself."

Dawn snatched the phone from her, hesitating only a second before composing the phone number. She waited only a few minutes before her dad's voice answered.

"Hello?"

She tried to find something to say but it was so long since she spoke with him.

"Hello? Who's this?"

Finally, Dawn readied herself to speak, looking at Buffy.

"Hello. Dad, it's Dawn."

Dawn had almost wanted to add: _you daughter, remember?_

She heard an intake of breathe before he spoke again.

"Dawnie! How are you, baby?"

Dawn realized he probably forgot she wasn't a baby anymore. She decided to go straight to the point, not to waste time.

"We wanted to see you… You know, with Buffy. The secretary didn't want to let us in."

"Ah… honey… I am busy these days with work." He responded, his voice sounding nervous.

Dawn closed her eyes, preparing herself but hating herself for doing it.

"You know, Buffy left for L.A. I am still here… and I wanted to know if you could make some time for me."

Suddenly, everything changed, his voice passed from full with nervousness to relief. He began talking and expressing himself more… a lot more.

"Of course, you can come tomorrow, even now! Yes now that I think about it, nothing is more important than seeing how my daughter grew. I will cancel my appointments for you. You know, I have been worried about you staying with your sister; she has such a bad influence on people!" Buffy closed her eyes, flinching a little. "She always was a troublemaker; I am telling you she is bad news! If I didn't need more time to settle some affairs, I would have arranged for you to stay here in New York…"

She hung up on him.

Looking at the floor, she spoke.

"How did you know?"

Buffy watched her lowered head, her hands clenching the phone so hard, she wasn't sure it was going to survive. She couldn't say her father's words didn't hurt but…

"He told me."

What he said wasn't anything new to Buffy.

Dawn felt her tears fall before wiping them angrily with her hand. She then raised her eyes to fiercely pierce Buffy's eyes with her angry and determined expression.

"Well I don't want him either. It's **You and Me** or nothing!"

"Dawn he's your father… don't let me ruin this for you."

"I don't care!"

Dawn proceeded to plaster a resolved face that she stole from Willow. Buffy knew, there was no way she was convincing her at the moment. She took her by the shoulders and guided her toward the exit. Dawn took her arm from her shoulders to intertwine their arms together.

"We will be okay both of us on our own. We will do okay."

Buffy couldn't help but smile at that.

As they were leaving, the wall suddenly fell down in a loud bang, making them still in the doorway. Buffy turned around slowly and opened her mouth attempting to say something.

"Damn…"

"BUFFY! You really broke the wall!"

**END OF CHAPTER**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: What on Earth…?**

_"All men that are ambitious of military command, are inclined to continue the causes of war; and to stir up trouble and sedition: for there is no honor in military but by war; nor any such hope to mind an ill game, as by causing a new shuffle." _- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651.

Singing softly, Mary was quickly going over the files in front of her.

"Now, that's interesting."

Her mug in hand, she took out the bottom file while trying to take the rest in her arms, attempting then to reach the door without falling or dropping the documents.

As she was two feet from the door she felt her mug filled with her precious morning coffee was beginning to slip from her hand. Panicking, she contemplated her next move: her security detail knew her habits, if she just called them, they would come without doubt, but they would drag their feet because they knew she liked to make them do things unrelated to their jobs… The only solution was…

On the other side of the surprisingly big suite, the head of security _agent Paul Porter_ was playing poker with his team and was in his winning game when they heard a strident scream. He jumped in the air, took out his gun before running toward his charge's room. He paused at the door, making sure the others were covering him; he didn't hesitate and kicked the door open. As he rushed in, he nearly ran over Mary with files and papers all over her arms and still trying to steady her mug with her leg in a surprisingly graceful way. Well Paul could guess that her Slayer powers were the cause for it… He shook his head in an attempt to understand the situation. His second in command, Nate Shane, was still a little young and genuinely trying to assess the problem by questioning the princess while Paul was beginning to feel a bit suspicious.

"Your Highness! Are you alright? Are you in any danger? Did you see something? Were you trying to run with these secret files?"

The only thing she did was dump all the files on him, taking her mug firmly in both hands and drinking her coffee happily.

"Thank you for your help Nate. You are such a sweetie!"

She pushed her hair back before moving toward the door.

"Prepare the car; I have to catch Buffy before she leaves for Washington."

She left them stupefied. Nate lowered his head to look at his newly acquired burden, sighing dejectedly.

"We've been had, AGAIN by a freaking princess!" One of his men said surprisingly, outraged more by the fact that a princess mocked them than the fact that there wasn't any danger.

Somehow, Paul couldn't help but agree. He picked up the pace to catch up with her. She was one stubborn princess but they all respected her too much to be mad at her.

As he reached her, he took ahold of her arm gently to slow her down, putting away his gun at the same time.

"You have got to stop doing that. You know, you could have called like a normal person. What if we don't take it seriously if one day, you are in trouble?"

She looked at him, before facing him.

"When that day comes, you'll know. Trust me."

She started to walk again but he stopped her again, holding her closer.

"How will I know? You know I care about you; I don't want anything to happen to you and certainly not on my watch. I can't let that happen."

As confident as she was, Mary couldn't help but blush at his intense stare. She put a hand on his chest, feeling his heart rate accelerate. She looked up to watch his beautiful face. He was a trained military agent, fierce and dangerous. But with her, he was so gentle… While he could have had an important promotion for his services in the black ops, he asked to be responsible for her. Ever since then, he took over her protection and he took it seriously; watching her with his protective and so intense eyes.

"If I am attacked, you will hear me fight and scream. Mine and theirs, I don't know whose life will be lost but one thing is for sure… I will win or I will go down fighting. Trust me when I tell you: you WILL know…. "

Paul couldn't help but be impressed by the fire in her eyes. She had grown so much over the last couple of years. Mary herself found herself surprised to realize that she actually believed what she was saying. There was a darkness within her that wasn't there before. Paul watched her conflicted expression, with a proud face.

'I guess she really is a slayer huh…'

"But… I will stop doing it…"

Surprised, he looked back at her. Her eyes were still looking at a spot in the wall absently, before turning to stare at him, taking her hand off of his chest, blushing a little when he made a move to take her hand.

"But only because you asked kindly."

She left it at that, and moved away quickly so that she could hide her blushing face from him, leaving him astonished in a pleasant way this time. In her way to the elevator, the young woman took out her cellphone and dialed Buffy's number. After a few rings, she heard Dawn's voice.

"Hello?"

"Dawn! Hi! Is your sister driving?"

"She wanted to but absolutely NOT! Actually, we were going to take a car to Washington but just as we were doing a test drive with the car, BAM Buffy crashes into somebody's bike. SO… we returned the car _thank god it wasn't really damaged_ and I booked us some train tickets. Buffy is still brooding." Just as Dawn finished prattling, Mary heard Buffy's muffled voice complaining 'I am not brooding! I don't brood. And It was so not my fault.' and then Dawn's answer 'Right. Say that to the PARKED bike you ran into. It wasn't moving, how did you manage that'? After a few squeals and small cries of pain from Dawn, she heard Buffy's voice on the line.

"Gimme that!"

Dawn was the one sounding muffled now 'I am going to buy something to eat with Lisa.' Buffy said something that even her slayer hearing couldn't pick up and then the younger sister was replying mockingly: 'In your dreams! I am not bringing you anything!'

"What on Earth are you girls doing over there?" Mary wondered, laughing at their antics.

"I swear, there should be a law against little sisters being smart-asses! It shouldn't be allowed!"

Mary chuckled a little, turning to meet Paul's eyes, montioning for her to move aside from the elevator enabling the elderly couple behind her to use it. She then let him lead her by the hand back to the suite, still chatting to Buffy about nonsense about sisters until they were out of the public area. After all, the walls have ears.

She walked in quickly and sat down on the couch.

"So have you decided what you are going to discuss with the president?"

She heard the other slayer groan.

"I have a general idea but not exactly a structured idea… you see…"

"You have no idea about what you are going to say. Am I right?"

"Oh ok I admit it. I was going to go with my gut but if you have any suggestions…"

Mary couldn't help but be exited.

"As a matter of fact, yes I have an idea. As I was searching through the legal papers of the Council I found that they had some sort of renewable ten-year contract with the Crown and the British government. I was able to recover the last contract. This was a contract that was made centuries ago so it obviously needs a brushing in modern laws and a few adjustments but it could be your basis. I wanted to give it to you before you go. When is your train leaving?"

"Our train leaves in a little less than two hours. This is a good idea; I have to look it over with Giles and the others. Is it still in the ten years laps?"  
>"Yes actually but barely. It is going to end in two months. And Buffy! I sent the contract with Nate_ he is one of my men, don't hurt him."<p>

Buffy stayed quiet for several minutes, Mary thought for a moment that she hung up but focusing a little, she heard her intake of breath.

"I think we should make a new contract for a new Council. We will make it in the same format but…"

"I understand and you are right. I imagine your Watcher is in England, trying to recover the Council's banking accounts and properties. I can already tell you that they had a Castle in the Scottish Highlands, near Newtonmore. It is really big so you could use it as a QG for a while and then as a school or both."

"Geez! Why am I not surprised?" Buffy sounded bitter.

"Yeah, apparently for the watchers, slayers didn't have financial help, because it wouldn't be a sacred duty if they were paid to do it. I say they just wanted all that money for themselves."

"You are right! As much as Giles liked to think differently, the Watchers regarded their slayers as tools…"

"But Giles doesn't right?" Mary asked.

Buffy took a moment to respond accordingly.

"No… No I don't think so. Giles is as close to a father as I ever had, but I think he had… no has trouble letting go. He has a hard time accepting decisions I made without his help. You know… with the long life thingy being new for a slayer, this is an unmarked territory." She stopped for a moment before saying. "I don't know if he wants to be my friend and my watcher or only my watcher; I don't know if you understand…"

"I think I understand; you want to be reassured. You want him to be more than a watcher for you but also a friend, and ally if I guess right. It should be that way. I would want it to be that way…"

Suddenly, Buffy had an idea.

"Give Paul the phone for a minute."

Mary was taken aback by the request but did give the bewildered man the phone, raising her shoulders at his questioning eyes. There was something in Buffy's voice that made her obey immediately. She knew the experienced Slayer was their leader and everything in her being made her into the leader that she was. It was necessary, history was witness to numerous failed revolutions because there wasn't enough organization, there was not a single voice that was heard and listened to. As said Hobbes in his Leviathan, a leader is key to success and if the Slayers were going to survive, there has to be a leader. Mary was happy to notice that it didn't bother her in the slightness but that was maybe because Buffy was the leader in question. She trusted her, trusted in her ability to give them hope.

Mary had a quote from Hobbes in mind.

_'It was something like this: The only way to erect such a common power, as may be able to defend [men] from the invasion of foreigners,(...) is to confer all their power and strength upon one man,(...)' _

In the Slayers case, it was one woman.

While still lost in her musings, Paul took the phone from her hand and began talking with Buffy.

She stopped thinking about it when she heard what Buffy was asking of him.

"…Commando training, Krav-maga, Karate and a little Capoeira."

"The military version of Krav-maga or the street version?"

Paul was quiet for a moment before he reluctantly answered.

"Both. I learned the dirty version on the street and the cleaner version at the academy."

"Great! Demons don't play fair either; the street version is more ruthless. Krav-maga is a good way for her to begin training. It is a little violent but it has moves that reach vital points like the neck, groin and such. That is good on vampires… A little Capoeira the morning to loosen up is cool even if Tai Chi is more relaxing and gives more focus. I suggest one hour and a half running every morning followed by a little Capoeira to warm up and then Krav-maga. Use low and wide stances to strengthen her legs and arms. Then as soon as you think she mastered it enough, you can begin Karate. Ah and no frolicking during training! That's for after, as Faith said after a good exercise a slayer is either hungry or looking for a different kind of exercise if you catch my drift…"

Paul put a hand on his face, not believing what the woman was sprouting. He knew Mary heard her, he didn't want to see her reaction. Mary was flustered and rushed to take the phone from him, nearly falling on the little table in front of the couch.

"What… I mean… Give me the Phone!"

Finally, the phone was back in her possession, she stood up and walked across the room from an embarrassed Paul.

"What in the hell is the matter with you! What did I do to you?" She shouted-whispered so that the others don't hear, specially a certain blue eyed dark and young chief of security named Paul.

"Hm. Let me think!" She then took a higher voice than hers to try and imitate Mary's voice. _'I sent the contract with Nate_ he is one of my men, don't hurt him.'_ She then took back her own voice. "Who do you take me for? I do not hit every one in my path!"

"I mean come on, I know you are on edge so it is normal to do things like that. Don't feel bad about it, Dawn told me about the wall you brought down." Mary was feeling a little too good about returning the favor.

"I… That's not the same! I assure you I am not like that. I am going to strangle that little… Can you believe that she felt bound to tell everyone we know that Buffy entered a building unauthorized and started destroying it by bringing down the walls! I mean come on it's a total exaggeration!"

"Well…"

Buffy interrupted, moaning in exasperation.

"Don't say a world! I am hanging up, the girls are coming back and you are mean!"

Mary only smirked in happiness at her success.

"Whatever!" She replied flippantly. " Text me when you speak with the President or if there is any problem. Don't hesitate!"

"Of course. Take care of yourself Mary and take care of Paul. Don't be too gushy about having a man. Not everyone has one as yummy as yours."

Of course! Buffy wouldn't let her have the last word; she could practically hear the smile on her face. When she realized, the slayer had hung up, Mary couldn't keep the disappointment down.

"Damn her! Next time I will have my last word…"

Mark opened his door with his good hand, glad to be home at last. Several weeks had passed since the incident; he had stayed in New York for the need of the investigation. Right now he was just happy to be in his city, with his wife. Thinking of his wife brought back the memory of the agonizing but fighting woman stabbed by her own husband. The man was abusing her and their daughter but he was still surprised she hid her five year old from him to protect her.

'Scum bag!' He thought, frowning.

"Honey! I am home!"

He advanced his destination _the kitchen_, where he knew his wife was cooking. However she wasn't in there.

"Stephanie?"

As he reached the living room, he was surprised by his crying wife running toward him and in a beautiful leap from someone so small she jumped up and took him in her arms.

"Oh Mark! What happened to you? I am so sorry I should have gone with you. Look at you…"

She was beginning to tear up again.

"Hey! Hey Steph! Don't cry! I am alright, just scratches and the criminal is taken care of."

She nodded and kissed him lovingly before reaching up and touching his scratches with her hand.

"Happy birthday! I am sorry I didn't invite anyone, I wasn't in the mood with you injured. I wanted to be with you alone and nurse your battle wounds…" She finished, smiling tenderly.

"Don't worry. The only thing that matters is that you are with me and that I am home."

"I have a message from the president and from your friends. We can do the party tomorrow! Let's have some cake, it's your favorite: white and black chocolate, you know my 'forêt noire et blanche'."

"Mmm I look forward to eating that! As for the party, let's not do that please, I…"

He was interrupted by the doorbell. He groaned and made a show of dragging his feet to the door, followed by his laughing wife.

He opened the door and was surprised to find someone he really didn't want to see.

"You again?"

In front of him was agent Paccione from the NCIS.

"M. Davenport, we still need you to cooperate. Keith Gerald was a marine, knowing you were from Washington DC; the case is given to the Washington branch of the NCIS. However, my boss wants to question you about a missing piece of information about the crime scene. With the victim still in coma, the weapons are a dead end without trace of DNA, the only thing we have is your testimony against M. Gerald. He said there was a woman there with you. She could be involved. I need everything you could say to me about her so that we can find her and take her into custody."

Mark couldn't believe his hears.

"I'm sorry, you are actually telling me that the person that saved me is the criminal and the criminal is the hero…"

The agent looked quite taken aback by his answer and tried to justify his perseverance.

"No but without her we could lose our case against him."

His phone rang. He lifted a finger at the agent, to make him wait. The other man nodded with approval, even though he was a bit exasperated by the lack of cooperation from the advisor.

"Hello? Ah she is awake! Thanks a lot doctor!"

He talked on the phone for one more minute before hanging up and facing the NCIS Agent.

"Agent Paccione, I have good news for you! The victim is awake there are no troubles anymore; she is going to testify against him for abuse on her and on her daughter as well as attempted murder. She said also that her husband had a grill accident where he burned his hands; he doesn't have a complete print. You should really focus on him before he goes and kills the victim and her little girl."

Terry Paccione was a stubborn man; he was quite annoyed not to know every single detail of an investigation. And this woman was a detail he was going to know either from this man or from her.

"We will analyze her testimony but we need the woman's too. She has to come and tell us what she knows. The fact that she knocked out a marine with such ease suggest that she is maybe his partner or something."

Mark stayed silent for a moment as if contemplating something.

"You know what? She was right! You really have something against her even if you don't know her. Listen, I don't know who she is or how she managed to beat him up like that but I am going to tell you what I know…"

"We would really appreciate that. Thank you for your cooperation." Paccione was finally relieved that he would know about the woman, before they realized he was no longer on the investigation.

"I am not cooperating with you! You didn't see her risk her life to save ours. She is a Hero not a suspect!"

"You are quite the fan… Are you sure you don't know her?"

Mark could only clench his fist in desperation and anger.

"Alright that's it! I am going to tell you what I know of her but don't think that's going to help you find her. She is so young but had the courage to come in a dark alley to save my life and refuse recognition! Of course I am grateful for that much you know my life is dear to me and my wife even if it isn't for you!" Ignoring the agent's attempt to protest, he resumed his small monologue. "Now will you excuse me but I don't want to see you again, you said NCIS Washington was taking the case yet you still came here. You are from the New York Bureau you are out of your jurisdiction."

"I just want to stop a possible vigilante, and a possible criminal."

"Huh…"The advisor groaned in exasperation. "Get off of my property or I will sue you and trust me you don't want someone working so closely with the President of the United States take legal action against you!"

Right about when they began yelling at each other's; Stephanie touched her husband's arm to make him look at the newly parked car. With irritation, he found himself looking at a new set of NCIS agents. He saw two men: one was young brown hair, brown eyes and a cocky air around him; the other was visibly the boss he was older, his hair being filled with grey and his eyes were hiding intelligence and wisdom. They approached the door pausing in front of their fellow NCIS agent who was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the situation. He wasn't supposed to be here.

"M. Davenport, I am agent Gibbs from the NCIS and this is Agent Dinozzo. We wish to go over a few details on the incident involving you in New York if you have time."

"No problem Agent Gibbs, I heard about you. I know you are a fair person."

Gibbs raised his eyebrows in question. Mark cleared the air by answering his unspoken question.

"I work as an advisor for the President, as well as with several agencies. Of course you can come in but can I know if Agent Pacciano is still on this investigation because he is quite persistant."

"I think not…"

As the agent Dinozzo was rubbing it in Pacciano's face, an explosion was heard nearby. The power was so forceful that the ground shook. Just as Matt got out to see what was happening, another power pulse propelled upward several cars that crashed on each other on the way down. He fought to keep balance, catching the door not to fall. He ran in to his wife.

"Stephanie I want you to go to the anti-nuclear shelter under the house. I have to get to the White house."

"No I am not going without you!" She cried clutching his arm as he tried to go away.

"I am going to join you soon if the situation worsens."

He ran outside, the Agent Gibbs catching up with him.

"Come on, we will drive you!"

**Back to the Scooby's minus Xander.**

Giles, Willow and Buffy were at a Coffee shop in Washington talking about how they were going to proceed with the Council.

"So Giles as the new head of the Council you should take the initiative."

Giles took out his glasses and started cleaning them.

"Well, even if it is true, the president wants to meet you, Buffy. Not me alone. You have to come."

She sighed before nodding.

"I know, I'll come of course. Here is the contract that Mary gave me."

"Ah yes, there should be a clause about the new head of the Council taking control of the banking accounts. God I hope this will be over with soon. I feel like even in his death Quentin is mocking me." Giles took off his glasses and put them on the table in exasperation.

Buffy smiled at that, sharing an amused look with Willow who just shook her head in a "you-shouldn't-laugh-at-him" kind of way. Well, Buffy didn't have the same qualms about that. Even if they parted in a bad way, she couldn't stay mad at him when he was like this. She loved seeing him so worked up. Plus he had taken her apart when they first saw each other's and apologized to her profusely for not believing in her and for accusing her.

"As much as I hated Quentin Travers, there is one thing I know for sure. He wasn't going to give his position away anytime soon; he would make his predassessor work harder than ever. I contacted Roger Wyndham-Pryce _ Wesley's father_ and my friend Robson to try and find a solution. They pointed me toward an ex-watcher who knew something about a hidden vault."

"Who was he?" Willow asked.

"His name is Albert Sirk. He was once one of the Elders but due to the arrogance of our fellow watchers_ even his brother Rutherford Sirk _, he left The Council claiming that the rules needed to change. So I went to see him and he told me it was located in one of the estates of the Council in Scotland. I asked him if he wanted to be a watcher again but he claimed to be too old. However he told me that he would love to be a researcher."

Buffy searched through the papers in her lap until she found what she wanted. She extracted the paper from the bunch and gave it to Giles.

"Mary was telling me about a Castle in the Scotland highways."

Giles took the paper gingerly, putting on his glasses rapidly, nearly poking out his eye in the process.

"The Scottish Highlands" Automatically, he corrected Buffy absently without taking his eyes from the document.

Then...

"It is near Newtonmore! I didn't think of that." He exclaimed.

Bored, Buffy fought down a yawn, stopping suddenly at Willow's glare and sat down straighter.

"Why? Does it mean something?" Willow was excited they were making progress and every one was contributing. Even Xander was better; he called her wondering if he could bring his aunt back with him. He said she had a good influence on him. He sounded so happy, not like the somber guy she talked to several weeks ago as he was leaving. He sounded like before…

"I don't know yet. I just know it was the Council Estate that was the most secretive; it had many mystical and magical protections not even Quentin could penetrate the premises. I think we should visit it after our talk with the President. Willow should take a good look; see if she can read its magic."

"Alright! I have some news about 'Cheyenne Mountain'." Willow raised her hands to form quotation marks. "Guys, this is about aliens! They exist! And inside Cheyenne Mountain there is a Stargate which is some sort of alien technology that serves the same purpose as a portal. Except my portals are to different dimensions, the Stargate is a doorway to other planets!"

"Wow! Well I suppose that Quellar thing that tried to kill mom was an alien demon so why not? It is not so surprising, it was pretty arrogant of us to think that Earth was the only planet abhorring life."

"It was a Queller. And you are right but what worries me is that the military is responsible for this Stargate." Willow replied, looking at Giles apprehensively. He didn't say a word since she talked about aliens. He just kept opening and closing his mouth.

"Buffy I think I just broke Giles." She said, biting her lip with worry while Buffy just put a hand in front of his eyes and kept waving it around.

"Giles! Giles come on; this is not the most surprising thing to ever happen to us. Hey!" Buffy was determined to see him react so she did the only thing that would make him react normally.

She pinched him… hard. He screamed and swatted her hand from his arm angrily. Willow just covered her mouth with her hand, didn't know if she had to be surprised, reprimand or just laugh at them.

"Good LORD! Buffy, what is wrong with you?" Giles tried to lower the pain by massaging his poor reddish skin.

"What is wrong with me? The question is: were you just going to faint for the twentieth time since I have known you or were you just impersonating a fish out of water?" Buffy replied cheekily, her smile managing to be even bigger than before.

"Children! Let's get back on the subject here, we don't have a lot of time before having to go to see the President! I can't believe I am saying this but let's talk about aliens." Willow interjected, blushing immediately when they both looked back at her.

They both sat back, while Giles regained his composure despite a slightly still dazed look on his face every times she spoke about aliens. Willow tried to give them a summary of the missions that SG1, the main team of exploration, took; she took all this time since they saw her to retrieve information and found what Mary talked about: The rock that talked about the Chosen one.

"I was able to find photos, and areport about it. Here…" She took out photos and enhanced photos from her bag with the reports and the translation. "Look at this."

"It was found on a deserted planet with nothing more than a few temples and pyramids. These are runes. Do you recognize them, Giles?"

She handed to him the papers, waiting for him to examine it.

"Oh my god! This is the… This rune is Guardian and next to it there is… Good god I know what this is!"

Buffy leaned forward, listening intently. She knew when Giles had this face it would only mean that it was extremely important.

"This rune means… the first of a line… It means…" Giles couldn't finish because Buffy finished by guessing what he wanted to say.

"Sineya…"

Giles nodded gravely and went on explaining his theory.

"Sineya was the First Slayer, the first of the Line. And some believed her to be the First Guardian of the Line. This is the meaning of the two first runes, I need my books and the real rock in front of me to be sure. However I have my suspicion."

"Guardian? Like the woman that was guarding the Scythe?" Willow asked.

"From what you told me, that Guardian was guarding the Scythe waiting centuries for the One, which is you Buffy. Now I don't know why but there must be a link between the two guardians. I didn't think it was the same because Sineya was a slayer and is dead, but was still considered to be Guardian of the Line. Or more precisely: she became a Guardian after her death, her spirit was really powerful and watched over slayers ever since. Buffy did you ever see her in your dreams?"

"Yes several times, some of them when she wanted to kill me but other times she gave me clues… And I always felt her…" She thought for a moment, her face tensing in concentration. "I don't know how to explain it."

"It's ok I understand, don't hurt yourself." Giles said with a smile, while looking at the other inscriptions.

Buffy opened her mouth in shock, before closing it, accepting defeat and smiled sarcastically at him.

"Ok I deserved this. So I'll let it pass."

Willow, who was still reading the reports, brought back their attention.

"This was not the only things they retrieved: books, weapons reported not working but they could be compatible to slayers only… This is … we have to take those. They are ours. They have no link to whatever alien technology they are after, this is slayer business."

"Yes, this… rock was a legend. Some stories were told about an artifact left behind by the First Slayer, the historian called it 'Sineya's Hand'. We don't know exactly what it does and why it had been found on another planet but one thing is for sure… It is our business." Giles replied more seriously.

"Guys…" Buffy tried to say something but both her friends were too focused on the photos of the runes. She was reading the only thing she could understand completely. She wasn't a complete dummy; she had picked up several words from dead language in her years with these two book-geeks and her sister who was fascinated with dead languages. However, she was most comfortable with … English.

"Guys, you might want to see this. This could be our leverage to the President." Buffy tried again.

"You can read that?" Willow asked surprised.

Buffy couldn't help but feel a little hurt by the question. However, she only had herself to blame, she really didn't like research.

"Yes, it's in English. And oh wait I can read English, can't I?" She finished her sentence by glaring at her red friend who blushingly tried to apologize. "It's ok, I am messing with ya. This is what is written: Explorers of the faraway planets, among whom there is a man whose gene is one of the Ancient: For the Chosen one, savior of the Earth, this is to give."

They all stayed quiet for a moment until Giles stood up and walked toward the exit.

"Ok that's it let's go see the President."

The two girls hurried after him, taking the papers in their hands quickly before leaving.

An hour and a half later as the sun was beginning to set, they were still in the waiting area near the Oval office. They looked in awe at the surrounding space; specially Willow, while Giles kept doing comparison with Buckingham Palace. Buffy was just touching everything, the walls, the chairs, the table… When Buffy was bored, Buffy liked to annoy, so Buffy annoyed the President's secretary.

Suddenly, men with military outfits rushed to the oval office leaving the door slightly open.

"That must be the Joint chiefs. This is so exciting!" Willow was nearly jumping on her seat while Buffy began to suspect that something was wrong. Even the secretary wasn't paying any attention to her. She was swiftly making several calls and reporting to the President.

"Something is wrong…" Buffy mused to herself, while approaching the door leading to the office. Unexpectedly, she heard the sound of a TV, the reporter was speaking of explosions, and meteors… before the voice was being cut off.

"Giles my phone stopped working…" Buffy heard Willow say and she vaguely heard Giles check his, only to notice that it wasn't working either.

She heard voices arguing, with someone telling "Why not a city or two to prove his power?" She raised an eyebrow at that.

However, just as the talking stopped, there was a whooshing sound that caused everyone inside to scream. Several men in black entered the room and began shooting confirming Buffy's suspicion that something was wrong. She put herself in the doorway and saw a hooded figure being shot at, Willow and Giles following her.

"Hold your fire! It's an hologram!"

The president advanced with a brave front toward the enemy. The hooded figure began talking, their voice being disturbingly hollow.

"I am Anubis."

Buffy felt Willow suppress a little scream.

"You've got to be kidding!" They heard the President say mockingly.

"You are the leader of this world." Anubis kept talking coldly.

Surprisingly, The President didn't lose his cool.

"Henry Hayes, the President of the United States of America. One nation! Among many…"

"NO war, bow before your god!" Anubis said, causing the President to laugh at him while replying.

"I don't think so…" He paused for a second before declaring boldly in a Buffy manner.

"However I am willing to discuss your surrender."

The man-thing-wannabe-god responded with logic.

"If you possessed weapons you would have used them!"

"Don't let the suit fool you, fella! We are going to fight." Hayes affirmed seriously.

"You bring destruction upon your servants!"

"Never going to happen!" The president retorted.

The hologram Anubis disappeared then, making the President turn back to his staff and asking:

"Too much?"

Buffy couldn't help but be impressed. She entered the office, applauding the performance of confidence she just saw. Every one turned toward the new person in the office.

"That was good! A good show of leadership, I am impressed."

The staff couldn't help but feel the presence of the tiny girl that just came in. The president took a good look at her; she had an air around her… The way she moved, talked, watched every single one of them, profiling them in her mind… She could only be…

"Miss Summers?" He asked tentatively. He had seen what she could do; when he became President he had been briefed about the Initiative, about how she dispatched Adam and about her existence. He still had a little trouble believing it but knowing about the Stargate command made him more open minded. He called her here for this reason, if the Stargate hadn't been unearthed, this would have never happened. He was weary of this type of military program even if the General Hammond was one of his dear friends; he knew there could be problems he couldn't prevent nor solve. Dr Weir was doing a good job but right now she wasn't experienced enough in strategy.

Buffy nodded as one of the President's staff just hung up the red phone, looking alarmed.

"Sir! Thirty plus ships just appeared in orbit taking station around the planet."

"I guess he didn't buy it then." Hayes said dejectedly.

"On the contrary, he did buy it. He is panicking." Buffy claimed, slowly making her way to stand near the President. "He is showing you what he's got, to make you show what you've got, so you can probably count on there being more of those ships."

Hayes looked at her pensively.

"You think he is testing me?"

"Yes! What he wants is for you to show what protection you have! You made it sound like you have something to fight these things. So Mr. President, What have you got?"

"Well unfortunately we don't have enough right now but we will soon. We have to buy more time!"

Buffy looked then at Willow for a second. She had a look of concentration in her face, one strand of her hair was becoming white.

"Mr. President, it is time to go to the off-site. You can stay in contact from there…" The vice president tried to convince the President.

The President didn't even let him finish. He was tired of him being useless and a coward.

"Bob go ahead! We can solve this without you." Hayes said, gesturing the door behind Buffy with his head.

"Mr. President!"

"No, no, go ahead. I am staying." He stated firmly.

Buffy looked closely at Kinsey as he scampered away, turning her stare back at the President who was also looking at them.

"What is going on, Mr. President?" She asked, never once wavering under his scrutiny.

At this moment, Mark Davenport came crashing at the door asking the same question as her when he recognized her; two NCIS agents trailing behind him.

"What is going on, Mr. President?"

**END OF CHAPTER**

**Faimyest**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The Big Battle.**

**Then:**__

_Buffy looked closely at Kinsey as he scampered away, turning her stare back at the President who was also looking at them._

_"What is going on, Mr. President?" She asked, never once wavering under his scrutiny._

_At this moment, Mark Davenport came crashing at the door asking the same question as her when he recognized her; two NCIS agents trailing behind him._

_"What is going on, Mr. President?"_

**Now:**

Buffy watched the equivalent of a possible disaster unravel in front of her as one of the Joint Chiefs was speaking on the red phone and reporting to the president about the situation in hyperspace. No one, attempted to make small talk there was no time for that. Giles was speaking in turns in hush tones to Willow and to his phone. She was able to hear everything and what she was hearing was slightly worrying.

"…Yes Althenea, you have to secure the area… if a blast touch the Well, it could be disastrous… if you need help, Willow can teleport, this is extremely important. Inform the Well's Guardian… I know the shields should hold but we don't know what power or knowledge this Anubis has… Thank you, I shall keep you informed."

He hung up and gave back the phone to Willow who nodded at the Slayer.

'_I am ready when you are._'

Buffy looked briefly at the newly arrived people. She vaguely remembered the one talking to the president as the man she saved in New York. Then, she approached the President, starting them as she moved without a sound. They were talking about her of course. It must have been a surprise to see her here but now was not the time to dwell on details, whoever was Anubis he seemed serious about his invasion of Earth. However, she wasn't ready to see that happen… not on her watch.

"We don't have time for this Mark, if we survive this, I will give you clearance to know and you can ask Miss Summers yourself." Finishing his sentence, he glanced briefly at the Slayer, who nodded in agreement. Turning then toward the NCIS agents standing in the corner of the Office, he talked sternly. "I don't have time to deal with you either. You have to understand that we are in a situation where civilization as we know it could disappear in a blink of an eye. If we solve this, you will have to sign clearance papers and pretend this never happened, do we understand each other?"

One could see at the time that even if the situation was deadly serious, the President was not kidding. Gibbs acquiesced briskly, before saying, looking at Buffy dead in the eye.

"I understand that something more important than us is happening now." Buffy felt a deep relief, when hearing him speaking. She wasn't sure of the man he was but he had this look… it was like watching an extremely determined and intelligent man. It didn't look like he was going to have a lot to do to realize her involvement seeing as Mark's reaction spilled the beans. A moment later, dread rose in her as he spoke again firmly. "However… I want to know who she is and what has she got to do with my case. I don't care if she is the Queen of England; I want to know about her involvement."

Before the President could respond, Buffy decided to put an end to it. She put herself in front of him in a blink of an eye, suddenly angry about the fact that helping a person in need is questioned so much.

"I don't have any involvement with your case. I heard a scream, ran toward it and neutralized the threat then left before the police arrived." She said glaring at him.

He neared her dangerously and looked down at her thinking of intimidating her into talking. If she was a normal human, Buffy would have been a little afraid. However, being who and what she was, she knew the slayer in her would not stand still at the fact that a mere human wanted to put on a show of superiority. She wanted to smile at that, but considering the situation… it was best not to insult him. He couldn't find anything against her because she didn't do anything and he knew it as well. However he seemed determined to know every details of the case; it looked like it was one of his qualities _or was it a sin?

"I would have believed you if it was not a trained marine on steroids."

She however let show a slight smirk when she heard his answer.

"Then shouldn't you investigate who put him on drugs instead of being suspicious of little ol' me."

"You want me to believe that you_ a blond midget_ can punch the lights out of a trained black ops soldier armed with a gun and a knife." Gibbs responded, entering her personal space. It was his attempt at provoking her because he knew that anger would make her do mistakes.

Buffy suddenly lost her smile at the midget comment. Not because of her height but because of the fact that the same mistake was made each time with humans or demons alike. They underestimate her. She shook her head at him, gazing at him with steel.

"Don't go there! There is nothing more to it; there are some things worth forgetting."

Ending the conversation by facing the President, she spoke aloud for everybody.

"Now can we talk about what is going on here? Those not concerned should leave the room." She said, moving her head toward the NCIS Agents.

Sighing, Hayes nodded and tried to explain the situation at hand in the quickest way possible.

"Yes. I guess we should do that."

"M. President, you don't have time to make sure they leave properly, just let them stay and sign non-disclosure papers later. If not, those three should go too." Mark said, looking at Buffy, Willow and Giles.

"I don't think so, if the Earth is in danger we must be present." Willow responded, crossing her arms nervously. The waiting was weighting on her, she wanted to do something, anything. She admired the poised look on Buffy's face. She looked like nothing was out of the ordinary, calm as always, observing the people, analyzing the situation without seeming too involved in the matter. That was what makes her a good leader, she guessed.

"What can you do? You can't do anything!" One clueless Joint Chief retorted to them, making the others gasped.

'_Hmm… some know about us'_ Buffy thought.

She even heard one person _she wasn't sure who_ say quietly: "You are saying this to Willow Rosenberg…"

Apparently Willow heard it too, seeing as she was blushing furiously. Giles cleared loudly his throat, intervening in a fitting moment as always.

"If you would please excuse me for interrupting and saying this…" Everyone turned toward him. Nervously, he took out his glasses and began cleaning them, making Buffy smile. "Frankly speaking, we don't have time for finger pointing. We are quite accustomed to these _how can we say this_ critical circumstances. Buffy is very intuitive and is an excellent strategist. Willow is an extremely talented young woman, I know some of you are aware that she could be a very important help, if you know what I mean. As for me … this old man here will give a few wise advises needed or not; we cannot know before the heat of the situation."

"Giles don't belittle yourself. You are very important in this fight." Willow said, blushing.

The President's eyebrow rose high up his forehead.

"I know of Miss Summers and of course her mentor M. Giles but the name Rosenberg does ring a bell… Where have I heard of it?"

At that moment, he looked sharply at his people making them rush over the door. Not even five minutes later, someone gave him a black file with 'eyes only' printed in red. The President began making noises with his mouth as he was reading.

The file was about Willow Rosenberg. He passed quickly the paragraphs about School and such before arriving at known talents: Computers. He read between the lines the meaning of it.

"I see…"He looked up briefly at Willow, making her blush hard and wriggle her hands nervously.

He passed the details about her acceptance at Harvard, Oxford, Colombia and began to read about her special talents: Witchcraft. Details: Wicca.

"Really?" He pondered.

He resumed his reading, more and more curious. He reached the part about her special achievements: ensoulement spell, closing the Hellmouth…

Then at the end of the list, he froze and let out a big: "OH!"

Hayes rechecked this part unable to believe his eyes: ensoulement spell, closing the Hellmouth (…) resurrection… When he read the word 'resurrection', Hayes felt sweat begin to pearl up his forehead before concealing his edginess behind coughs.

At this Willow waited for the inevitable and Buffy put herself in front of her defensively.

Nevertheless, he only closed the file and gave it passively to one of his Joint chiefs. He cleared his voice before speaking to everyone.

"I agree with M. Giles. We don't have time for this! Let's talk seriously."

He turned toward Gibbs and Dinozzo: "Don't interrupt even if you don't believe a thing. Just make yourself as small as possible."

Twenty minutes later, Willow, Buffy and Giles were standing near the President over plans of the Prometheus whereas both agents were too shocked to realize it was a real situation.

Tony was sitting back against the wall, looking at his hands, blankly. Agent Dinozzo wasn't a man easily afraid but he couldn't stop thinking about it. For minutes his eyes were unblinking and watching the skin of his hand over and over. His eyes gazed over a little more when he heard the President Hayes speaking to the little blond that dared speak up to Gibbs so boldly.

"It is a good ship. However, it is one ship against Anubis's fleet. It can support only so much before the shields collapse. We have to gain some time for SG1 to return."

He turned toward Hammond.

"I will need you to do something for me George. Prepare Prometheus, meanwhile I have to prepare my speech."

Willow whispered to Buffy.

"I can strengthen the shields from here. But it is going to attract attention."

She looked over the people in the Office; stopping on Gibbs and the still shell shocked Tony. Giles looked at them briefly before shaking his head. He just had ended his phone call to England.

"There is no sparing them anymore, do whatever you can. I have some news from the Devon coven. The blasts are taking out power grids, but are approaching the Deeper Well. I don't know if it is intentional, but if this Anubis is half ascended, he could know what it means and wants to spring free some old ones to distract us or to end us. I don't know exactly but we have to act now. When the time comes, if there is need of reinforcing the shields, just do it. Buffy I think we should get you where SG1 is or will be to ensure that they find this Ancient technology."

Mark chose this time to approach them.

"How can you use your Cellphone? Nothing works here."

"It is special." Giles answered, absently.

"Who are you, people?" Mark whispered to himself before raising his voice for them to hear. "Why aren't you more shocked by this? Or at least have a reaction to this?"

"Oh believe me; Giles had his very own reaction to this." Buffy couldn't help but mock, earning herself a glare from her Watcher.

"M. President, the Aliens are taking out power grids and broadcast terminals. They are determined to disable our communications."

The President turned toward his joint chief, resigned.

"So much for my speech."

Willow bit her lower lip nervously. Buffy, sensing her dilemma, touch her arm lightly.

"The shields are more important right now. And we don't know if something else is going to happen. We can be in need of your help. Keep your strength."

The red head dropped her head before raising her again, when she heard Buffy talk to the President.

"I need to be near SG1 to protect them. I need to be on the Prometheus or on a spaceship that can put me in there with them. If the knowledge contained by the Ancient can be the way to win this, I have to be near them."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes it is very important that I protect them. And Willow should be in there to reinforce the shields. Giles will stay in contact with us."

Hayes nodded before looking at George Hammond.

"George, it is time. John, launch Prometheus and leave a seat open for Miss Summers and Miss Rosenberg." He turned to a woman that seemed to be responsible for the White House communication. "Go to Def com 1."

Hayes let a breath out before sitting at his desk, motioning for the others to sit as well. Buffy nodded to Giles before following John and Hammond out of the Oval Office with Willow behind her.

**Aboard the Goa'uld Cargo Ship.**

Approaching Earth, the members of SG1 were preparing themselves for battle. O'Neill, still under the influence of Ancient knowledge was growing more and more closed off. He was working on the rings for a purpose unknown to the team. After going to Praclarush Taonas and bringing back a working ZPM, the team was still clueless about what the Colonel was doing. His actions were becoming more and more subconscious after healing Bra'tac with the healing powers of the Ancients.

Daniel came rushing to the control room.

"Jack is modifying the ring transporter to be able to use it to put a hole through the ice."

"We must first defeat Anubis's fleet." Teal'c replied, tilting his head to acknowledge the information.

"Yea… How are we going to do that?" Daniel asked.

Without letting his eyes stray, Bra'tac replied to his question.

"We must first leave hyperspace as close to the Earth's atmosphere as possible."

"So we can appear on the other side of the Armada…" Daniel conjectured accordingly, while deep in thoughts.

"There will not be much time to decelerate."

"Of that I am aware of, I'm afraid…" Teal'c said stoically in response to his master's worrisome prediction before turning his head back toward the sighting of Earth.

A few moments later, they were leaving hyperspace and entering Earth's atmosphere quickly approaching their destination at an alarming speed.

**Meanwhile, at Cheyenne Mountain.**

Doctor Weir, newly in charge of the Stargate Command, tried to remain calm while trying to ward off an angered Kinsey still trying to escape to the Alpha Site. Following the Nuke and after looking at SG1's transmission announcing their founding and return, she hurriedly speed off to her office, Kinsey in her shadow, and pick up the Red phone to call the President.

"M. President, Prometheus can't win against an entire Goa'uld fleet but it could buy SG1 enough time to complete their mission."

Kinsey attempted to intervene while Doctor Weir tried to argue more.

"This is downright insane. I am relieving Dr. Weir and taking command of this…"

"Sir! From what I…"

**At the Oval Office.**

"Will you shut the **** up?" President Hayes screamed irritably at the phone.

He heard then Elisabeth trying to apologize.

"Not you doctor."

"Excuse me?" Kinsey's voice appeared astonished.

"Consider your resignation accepted Bob." He laughed at Kinsey's protests. "Oh please! I have enough on you to have you shot!"

The conversation trailed off until he heard a door being closed very loudly.

"Go ahead doctor Weir."

**Aboard Prometheus.**

"… Initiate launch sequence."

Buffy stood near where was seated Hammond and was at the receiving end of a lot of stare mostly due to her civilian clothes. Same was for Willow, who was sitting on one of the chairs, meditating, her hair full of white strands and her eyes closed. They were headed to Antarctica to protect SG1's Cargo ship and she was ready to jump in the action. The death gliders were slightly ahead.

In no time, they were approaching the Cargo ship that was still drilling through the ice. Buffy put a hand on Hammond's shoulder to catch his attention.

"I have to be in there with them. Find a way." She said briefly.

Hammond looked wonderingly at her before catching her eyes. Her whole frame imposed authority. Even if he didn't want to help her, her eyes seemed to bore into his… He seemed compelled to find a solution for her.

"They seem to be using the rings to drill a way through the ice to reach the Ancient Technology. They are probably going to use these same rings to reach the ground." He said, turning back to screen view.

He looked then at Syler.

"Prepare the Al'kesh and lead Miss Summers to it."

Buffy quickly followed the balding man, with a thankful nod to Hammond. As she boarded the Ship, Buffy wished she could will The Scythe into appearing. As the ship left Prometheus, and positioned itself just below SG1's cargo ship, she positioned herself inside the rings reassuring for the fifth time the Pilot that they didn't have to worry about her going alone.

"Don't worry. I'll have…"

Looking around for a weapon, she found herself wishing again for her Scythe. However, as she was expecting to take one of the staff they gave her only, the Scythe appeared in front of her, missing by an inch the hair of the Pilot who jumped with fright.

"What the hell?"

It stayed horizontally still in the air. One of the crew member tried to touch it with a hesitating hand, before taking off his hand and cradling it against his stomach, seemingly in pain.

"Ah! I got zapped…"

Not as surprised as she should be, Buffy reached over to take it before another curious hand touches it. She swirled it a little in her hand before taking back the staff just in case.

**On the inside of the Ancient facility.**

O'Neill was in the process of installing the ZPM while Daniel, Sam and Teal'c were trying to fight off fend off Anubis' Kull Warriors but they were coming endlessly.

After Buffy got over the sensation of travelling through the rings, steading herself; she appeared directly behind two seven feet tall warriors with full body armor that looked hard to break. Three of the members of SG1 looked like they were trying to fight them off with their staffs whereas the last member was sitting on some sort of Chair. While she was trying to shield herself from the blasts by using one warrior; she heard the blond tall woman scream.

"Sir! Whatever you are going to do…"

She trailed of quickly as the blasts were intensifying. Buffy made then her move. Manipulating the staff was automatic for her, due to the heritage of The Slayer. She reached over the neck of the Warrior immediately in front of her, and without dropping either weapon, she fired on the other one who was quickly neutralized with the help of SG1. So she quickly let the staff fall on the ground, used the Scythe with all her strength to hit his arms causing him to let go of his weapon and to work on throwing her off him. Instead, to not be in the receiving end of the blasts, she turned him toward hard, kneed him hard catching him by the head as he fell. Finally, keeping him from moving, she launched her knee once more toward the place where his shin should be underneath the armor, hearing a terrifying crunch as his neck broke, then quickly finishing him off with both her hands.

As he fell, Buffy realized that the ground was beginning to shake. She swiftly made her way toward the rest of the astonished team, leaping through the falling ground beneath her.

**Aboard Anubis' Fleet.**

"My lord! Our shields are dropping too fast! Something is wrong!" One Jaffa said to Anubis who bellowed at him.

"Keep hitting them it doesn't matter!"

**Aboard the Prometheus.**

"Shields are down!"

Taking that as her signal, glowing with energy, Willow opened her eyes.

And then…

**End of CHAPTER.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Title: Unknown Path******

**Disclaimer: BtVS and Stargate (SG1 and Atlantis) or NCIS characters do not belong to me, and I claim no rights to these copyrighted materials. I don't know where the story is going but right now it is a Stargate crossover.**

**Chapter not yet Betaed! I am so sorry for the delay. I had exams, I transferred to another college… It was pretty busy for a while. I did not have time to write. I will update the betaed version of chapter 7 and 8 at the same time. We'll see when… Feel free to review a lot. ;)**

**I hope you will enjoy reading it.**

**Thanks a lot!**

**Faimyest.  
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**Chapter Eight: An Ancient Gift.**

In the process of losing one of theirs, the SG1 team members were devastated by the turn of the events. Staggering from the Ancient Weapon Chair, the Colonel O'Neill took a costly shuddering breath in his near death state while Sam and Daniel attempted to help him rise to his feet. Teal'c was still training his weapon on the petite blonde that appeared unannounced and surprisingly managed to defeat one of Anubis' super soldiers. The events had passed to quick but he couldn't be mistaken. He witnessed her arm and knee going through a seemingly impenetrable armor. Nothing short of a powerful energy weapon could have even cause fissures to it. However, she did not seem to want us any arm. Her strangely formed weapon was lowered and in fact, she looked at the Colonel with concerned eyes. He began to lower his zat before proceeding to helping the others. As they hurried him over to the stasis pod, Buffy remembered how numb she felt when her mom was diagnosed with cancer and she couldn't help but sympathize with what they were surely feeling. The man looked like he was in the brink of death. They froze him knowing his state rendering this situation resembling knowing that he will die should they not find a cure or solution. The Slayer observed the grieving group before her. The blonde woman was clearly the most distraught. She could only imagine that it was exactly her face when she killed Angel. She probably cared about him the same way and not knowing if he was going to make it was even worse. A fleeting thought came to her suddenly that at least there was still hope in contrast with Angel's demise being in hell.

As she was watching them, she decided that it was perhaps time to get out of here before they shake out their daze. However as she relayed the message to Willow to pick her up, they simultaneously turned their eyes on her as if they just realized she was there.

"Whoa, that's freaky." Buffy mumbled under her breath, trying to think of something reasonable to say if they asked her something. At this, she saw the dark skinned man tilt his head as if he had heard her self-mumbling.

She was happy it was at least pretty dark in here so that in the street, they would probably not have recognized her. After all, blonde petite woman existed everywhere in the United States of America. The slayer in her felt that it was not time yet to meet properly: through the proper channels. Mind you, there was no better proper channel than the president telling you to do everything in your power to help them but she still felt that it was too soon. As she felt the intensity of their stare, Buffy felt herself blush slightly at the attention wishing suddenly she had a cap or something to hide behind.

When no one made a move to speak, she cleared her voice loudly preparing a lie bigger than her head.

When no one made a move to speak, she cleared her voice loudly preparing a lie bigger than her head and Dawn's put together.

"Hm…Hello!"

The blond woman in front of her opened her mouth.

"Who are you?" She asked. Her tone held a little suspicion but also a lot of curiousness. Sam had clearly seen the woman help them but she couldn't help but be doubtful. Plus, she couldn't think straight, having just put her CO in stasis while he was near death. They were all grieving.

Just as she opened her mouth to sprout a lie, a big light enveloped her and the rest of the team.

And a second later they were beamed up to Prometheus. The General Hammond was waiting in front of them, looking both relieved and slightly overwhelmed. However, his eyes darkened as he saw one member of the team missing. He closed his eyes, feeling suddenly really tired and saddened as he feared for the worse.

"…you alright? General?"

His eyes snapped open before looking at Sam with a little more clarity.

"Yes, Yes I am fine. Colonel O'Neil?"

Seeing Sam shake her head before dropping it, Daniel tried to explain what happened while Teal'c watched, eyes filled with sadness.

"Well, regardless of the sad twist in the end; you did good and I have hope that the Colonel O'Neill will pull through no matter what. He is strong like that."

Sam offered a watered smile, while Daniel and Teal'c nodded in agreement.

As Daniel reached the part where Buffy intervened, he gestured with his hands to where she was supposed to be, only to find her gone.

"She is… not here."

He turned to the others, his neck snapping loudly.

"Why is she not here?"

"Where did she go? She was beamed with us sir." Sam added while Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow.

Hammond had no answer so he did the best thing, turn to his scientist aboard.

"Sir, we beamed them all aboard. The only explanation is that they hick jacked the beam to another direction."

Daniel furrowed his eyebrows while fumbling with his glasses. "Is that even possible?"

Sam protested loudly and at the same time taking place in front of a computer. "It certainly shouldn't be!" She looked over the data registered about the Asgard beaming technology, before hurrying over one of the many boards of the control room opening them to reveal the crystals allowing the beam to work. One of the crew approached Sam.

"I saw the red haired woman open it and fumbling with that."

She looked at him briefly before taking the crystal he indicated. She examined it before hooking up her tablet to it.

"Amazing!"

Behind her, Daniel asked. "What?"

"I don't know how she did it but she rewrote the entire code pertaining to the beaming technology. She added a directional system to it." Sam exclaimed while still shaking her head in disbelief. "Meaning we could beam in and out simultaneously with much more ease than before, adding to the fact that we can direct them in different direction. Granted it will take power but in a situation of danger it could be a good idea to know how to use it…" She trailed off as she read over something in her tablet. "Is something wrong with the sensors? The shields are nearly at maximum and the power levels are surprisingly high for a ship that just had been in battle."

Hammond shook his head while trying to make sense of it.

"I wish I could explain but… at the last moment… We were launching a full blown attack at the mother-ship expecting to fight to the end and take it with us." He paused in his explanation as his Texan accent shone through. "Anyways, their shields lowered and ours rose progressively. We were lucky the sensors detected it in time to change direction and speed or those machines would have destroyed us too. Now, I don't know what the hell happened but it saved us from imminent death! And it is good enough for me."

For a moment, Sam looked like she was going to object before closing her mouth at the General's warning stare to let it go. After he left, Daniel turned immediately toward Sam.

"Do you think it was an ascended being?"

"I have no idea."

Teal'c followed them out silently before adding.

"I do not believe it to be the case. The Ascended have demonstrated their reluctance to help in such matters. However, maybe another great race revealed itself to us."

The two others could only nod while Sam was still burning holes in the crystal that she took with her from the control panel, trying to somehow understand its functions.

Meanwhile, Willow beamed down next to Buffy. The Slayer hurried up next to Willow who was rubbing her arms in attempt to warm up a bit. They moved a bit closer to the stasis pod where there was less snow.

"Well? How was it?"

"Everything… uh… is taken care of. I lowered the shields on the enemy ship and…" She stopped abruptly then frowned at Buffy. "Buffy, a…aren't you c…cold?"

Startled, Buffy finally took notice of how inappropriate her attire was in the freezing cold. She took a frozen shard in her hand and watched it melt rapidly while feeling the concerned stare that Willow was sending her. She wiped out her hand on her pants before advancing near the big crater below the surface.

"It's nothing. I just fought; I am now beginning to feel the cold seeping in."

"…Okay… if you say so." Willow hesitated, not sounding really convinced.

"Are you ready to teleport us?"

"Yes. H…hold on to me."

_**A week later **_

**The Scottish Highlands, Newtonmore**

Lisa was walking ahead of the group, waiting to see the estate that will be the new Slayer Central. She couldn't see anything yet. The young slayer smiled in amusement as she felt Dawn's frustration reach her from behind. The younger Summers was panting with exhaustion and huffing annoyingly every now and then. Every time Lisa glanced back, under the pretense of make sure everyone was keeping up, she found her glaring at her sister and pouting. She knew she was extremely annoyed that Buffy had decided they were to walk there. It was either that or driving a bus in a precarious road. Everyone knew, Dawn didn't like walking and even less hiking with their heavy luggage. She tried talking to her but making small talk was not one of her forte. She looked back once more at the others: Giles, Robson _ his fellow watcher friend_ and Andrew were struggling to keep up with the pace Willow and Kennedy were taking. Willow was simultaneously walking _tripping_ and reading mission reports from the Stargate Command on her tablet. And they were starting to look like they could use a break, especially Giles. The other slayers were walking fast just behind Dawn, conversing quietly between them. Buffy, Faith and Marie were lingering at the back of the group, marching silently toward the estate. And just as they were beginning to despair, Lisa saw something ahead, looking like a big manor or a fortress.

As she saw it, Dawn began running full speed at it.

"Oh thank god!"

Reaching up to what seemed to be a big door, she stepped on the small staircase to open it. When it wouldn't budge, she turned toward the others.

"I don't suppose someone has the key?"

Willow stepped forward and raised her hand trying to find a way to unlock it. Lisa reached what looked like a mailbox, opening it. As she felt around with her hand for a few seconds, the box lit up surprising her and startling her into taking out her hand.

Watching the now-dark-again box, the young slayer naturally looked at Buffy for answer.

"What was that?"

The oldest Slayer shrugged her shoulders and looked automatically at Willow who rolled her eyes at her antics. She could see the wheels working inside Buffy's brain. The young witch knew her mouth sometimes ran faster than her brain.

"I got nothing."

Giles pushed through the crowed forming in the small staircase leading to the Giant Door and attempted to read the inscriptions on the box. Willow put her hand in the exact place, Lisa put hers and waited. When nothing happened, she motioned for Kennedy to put her hand. Now lit up with a beautiful blue light, what seemed to be a box appeared now to be a small operating device.

Regarding the Manor in a new light, Willow emitted a small "hmm".

"So?"

Looking at Kennedy, she told her to position correctly her hand and suggested to the others to move out of the stairs.

"Hold your hand still… yes that's it… give it time to analyze."

After ten seconds or so, door emitted a small noise, like locks opening. Willow nodded to herself.

"Now give a little push with just enough slayer strength."

Everyone was feeling the anticipation as Kennedy pushed a little against the door. Suddenly, the noise stopped and the door opened. Buffy held her breath as it opened completely revealing a surprisingly preserved structure. As Kennedy stepped in, everything began to light up.

"I think I know what this is."

Surprisingly it was Mary who said that. Willow and unconsciously Buffy nodded in agreement.

Buffy recalled her dream of the city underwater. "It's like Atlantis. This manor must have been created the Ancient." Everyone turned around to look at her. When she noticed, Buffy took offence to the surprised look on their faces. "What? I know how to read and the flight was long and boring."

Willow smiled gently at her best friend and said.

"Anyhow, I think whoever built this place knew exactly who it was for. The manor's locking system is probably linked to the genetic memory of the DNA of Slayers in their database."

She advanced toward a board and tried to make sense of it.

"This is Ancient for sure. The technology is so advanced; perhaps too advanced. It is going to take a while to go through everything."

Dawn stood behind her, trying to look.

"Hey I can read that!"

"What? Which symbol?" Willow asked, leaving her space besides her.

"Most of it. For the past week or so, I have been learning from Doctor Jackson's notes on the letters in Ancient. Alphabet…" Furrowing her brow, she seemed to think a little before adding. "If we can call it that…"

Buffy stood behind her, putting her hands on her shoulders making her bulk down a little.

"Well, Dawnie! It seems like you got yourself a job!"

Without leaving her the chance to respond, she took off to what she hoped was room filled with a bed and a shower.

"I am off exploring!"

An hour ago, after passing the most wonderful and biggest training room she'd ever seen, weapon rooms and what seemed to be library that would make Giles and Willow very happy. She stumbled upon a circular room that lit up at her arrival. The systems came alive as she hopped up the step and a hologram to view. It was that of a browned headed middle aged man wearing a strange long white tunic. He was staring straight ahead without blinking and his eyes were blank.

"_Hello!" _As the exclamation startled her, Buffy stepped out as soon as she stepped in, making the image disappear.

"_Hello Chosen One. You may enter your query verbally or by entering it manually on the console before you_."

"Fascinating!"

Not really surprised to feel him behind her, Giles came to stand next to her.

"Do you want to try it?"

She stepped down and allowed him to try.

"_Hello. You may enter your query verbally or by entering it manually on the console before you_."

"Can you tell me about this manor?"

"_Of course. This manor was created by a race called the Ancients. They had many names; some called them the Lanteans, others the Alterans. They are one of the most advanced races known to have existed, having evolved millions of years prior to the present day and reaching an extremely high level of technology long before humanity evolved on this planet. They built this place for the Chosen one and her people._"

"Why?" Buffy asked him.

"_Because they were allies. They had many common enemies._"

"Are you an Ancient?"

"_My creator was. I am built in his image._"

"What was his name? I mean what's your name?"

"_My name is Jonas_."

"Jonas, are you completely interactive?" Buffy asked, thinking it would be great to have a guide knowing the place.

He blinked as if the question surprised him. The young woman wondered how much this hologram was sentient and how much he could do.

"_My creator added options to this program. It can be adapted accordingly to the preference of each individual. I can be made independent of this room through the manor systems, or restricted to it. I can adopt the personality of my creator or remain in this state. I can be more or less interactive in my actions."_

"So you can show us to where we can rest?" Giles inquired, hopefully.

A simple question came through.

"_Yes._"

"Great! Let's go then!"

Putting a hand on his arm to halt him, Buffy still motioned him to wait, not noticing her strength or Giles wincing. "Wait Giles I have one last question!"

"Go ahead but be careful with your grip, you nearly took off my arm."

Her hand left him as soon as he said that as if she had been burned by his skin. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to."

"It's okay, I know. We'll talk about it later. For now, ask your question."

Still looking stricken, Buffy turned hesitantly toward Jonas.

"Is there a Stargate here?"

**End of Chapter.**

**Not betaed yet.**

**If there are a lot of reviews, you'll have the next chapter in two weeks.**

**Chapter nine preview:**

She interrupted him, shouting desperately. She couldn't deny it anymore, she couldn't bare it anymore. Something was wrong with her.

"Let it out Giles!"

He looked at her in regret as she struggled to control her emotions. Everything seems so raw that it was hard to keep calm.

A few minutes passed.

He nearly didn't hear it. She whispered the phrase in a single breath, eyes closed and looking more defeated than… ever.

"I need to hear it from someone else."

He sighed, closing his eyes.

And finally, he let it out.

**Till soon! End of Preview!**


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